photo by 663highland (Wikimedia Commons)

Most of us associate wildlife with the countryside rather than with cities, unless you count cockroaches, rats and pigeons as wildlife (and why not, they are alive and not domesticated).

However, urban environments can be unlikely havens for certain species that thrive or at least hang on to tiny remnants of their original habitats.

Larger animals can pose complications, such as the exploding deer population in Washington, DC. And by exploding, I was referring to their numbers, not the actual deer. That would really be a problem.

Then there are the UK’s urban foxes – loved, hated or even feared – they’ve landed their own prime time TV show on Channel 4 called ‘Foxes Live: Wild in the City’. That’s right, a live reality show filming urban foxes in London and other cities. How typically British.

From This Is Gloucestershire:

Although it is hard to confirm population numbers, it is believed more than 33,000 foxes exist in urban areas, with a further 225,000 living on the countryside. Last year, 81 cubs and 17 adults were released from wildlife rescue centres.

Possibly due to all the parks, Londoners really fancy themselves a bit wild. A recent competition for building homes for London wildlife featured bird and bat boxes, planters and various ideas for urban beehives. Not terribly exciting, but laudable enough.

On the other end of the spectrum, a wildlife officer recently shot and killed a young 110-pound (50-kilo) cougar in a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA. More exciting, but infinitely sadder.

Even the Japanese megalopolis of Tokyo has its share of urban wildlife, ranging from frogs and river turtles to raccoon dogs and palm civet cats. Read more about those in the Japan Times.

So next time you see an eagle killing a pigeon or a giant hare racing through a city park, remember that they are examples of urban wildlife, not freaks or invaders to be simply spurned, exterminated or uploaded on to YouTube. No more freakish than you are when you go camping in the forest or swimming in a mountain lake with your stupid Ed Hardy sunglasses.

photo by Kevin Cole (Flickr CC)

If you thought this post would be about the Rupert Murdoch-owned American right wing media outlet, you are mistaken. But now that I’ve lured you in with such a clever pun, why not stay a while and read about what our furry friends – actual foxes – are up to around the globe?

Let’s start with the US state of Florida, shall we?

On Florida’s Panama City Beach, red foxes are eating up loggerhead turtle eggs, much to the consternation of local egg-guarding environmentalists. Though the foxes aren’t the biggest threat to the turtles, they have been spotted digging up loggerhead eggs on the beach during this years egg-laying season – for the first time since 1991.

Dan Rowe, executive director of the Bay County Tourist Development Council (TDC) explains:

The red fox attacks this year only impacted three to four nests, all of which were on the west end of the program’s 17.5-mile watch area. However, the biggest dangers to the turtles and hatchlings remain bright beachfront lighting and the growth of beach furniture left on the sand overnight.

Read more in the Walton Sun.

Across the world in Melbourne, Australia, the fox population is on the rise. Non-native and considered an invasive species in Australia, foxes are a threat to livestock and indigenous wildlife.

From The Age:

Melbourne’s foxes live in dens by rivers, creeks and drains, under bridges and culverts, under sheds, on railway reserves and in gardens and parks.

One wonders why foxes are there in the first place, but the problem seems to be partly the fault of people who keep foxes as pets, cooped up in pens in their back yards.

Next, in the London suburb of Epsom, two foxes have been found dead beside a car park, laid side by side for all to see. They may have been poisoned or shot, but were most likely run over, according to authorities.

Lastly, have a look at this BBC wildlife video of a fox doing a nosedive into the snow in Yellowstone Park in the western United States. It’s a beautiful piece of nature filmmaking.

Image by Crinity (source: Flickr)

I was watching a late night show on Flemish television last night when a nature philosopher (Jan Desmet) and a hunter where asked to join the discussion table for a debate about the growing fox population in Belgium. I actually really enjoyed Jan Desmet working his way through defending the fox population against the arguments of a jealous hunter (the foxes are hunting faster and better than them, so their hunting game is threatened) and an opinionated commentator talking about killed pet chickens in bourgeois backyards.

The truth is, I was completely unaware that the fox population was growing and colonizing urban environments. And according to The fox website “foxes are widespread throughout mainland Europe and the British Isles, and in the past twenty years fox populations in Europe have been increasing in numbers.”

Jan Desmet pointed out that we should not feel threatened, but instead happy that foxes where able to adapt so well to human environment, considering what we have done to their habitat in the last centuries.

During the 1970s and 1980s the European fox population was hit by an outbreak of rabies. As a result, the fox population was given oral anti-rabies vaccination throughout most of Europe. Since 1985, and thanks to the vaccination campaign, the European fox population has been increasing nearly everywhere.

The hunter said to be campaigning for hunters to be able to kill more foxes, and for longer periods of the year. As in many European countries, hunting is strictly regulated in Belgium, allowing hunters to call themselves sustainable hunters nowadays, making sure there is not too much game shot dead so the population growth remains more or less the same for them to be able to enjoy their killer sport year after year. But to save their game, they must be allowed to kill more foxes. Otherwise, so the hunter said, the foxes will disseminate the existing wildlife population and bring the system out of balance. Is it just me, or is there something really wrong with this picture?

Additional information:

The fox website

photo by eddie gunn (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

The UK – particularly London – has been buzzing with wildlife news of late. There’s been a lot of man vs. beast, invasive beast vs. native beast and even man vs. himself.

The biggest of these stories has to be the case of the urban fox attacking twin baby girls in an east London house. The young fox slipped into the open house one unusually warm evening and viciously bit the babies about the arms and face as they slept in their upstairs bedroom. The incident has inspired strong reactions – sometimes bordering on the hysterical – public debate and plenty of media discussion of the event and the UK’s fox situation in general.

Fox attacks against people are unusual, but not unheard of. Urban foxes, increasingly common in London, are both loved and hated by the city’s residents, who either enjoy a bit of wild in their streets or dislike having their rubbish bins raided by the noisy nocturnal bandits.

Read more about the incident and Britain’s urban foxes in the Guardian piece entitled ‘Invasion of the urban foxes’.

In other UK ‘invasive’ species news, moles are making a huge comeback – to the chagrin of many farmers and gardeners. The Independent reports that exterminator calls regarding moles have gone up by a factor of three during the past two years. But are they actually pests?

They are insectivores and their diet could include such common nasties as cockchafer larvae and wire worms which can do an awful lot of damage to plants.

– David Wembridge, People’s Trust for Endangered Species

Meanwhile, the cute, tufted-eared indigenous red squirrel is set to receive some aid in reestablishing itself on the British Isles. According to a report in the Telegraph, the nearly extinct red squirrels will get a royal helping hand from Prince Charles against their competing cousins, the North American grey squirrels who, since arriving in the UK over 100 years ago, have outmuscled the reds – along with some help from the pox. It’s all very medieval sounding.

But first thousands of grey squirrels will have to be trapped and killed, sparking the anger of animal rights groups.

–Telegraph

Though the invasive grey squirrels do damage to hardwood saplings, I suspect it’s superficiality that really gets the sympathy going. They’re smaller, less ‘ratty’ and just damn well cuter than the Yank squirrels, by Jove.

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

Telegraph – Joanna Lumley: Fox cull would be a ‘tragedy’

WSBTV (Atlanta) – Caught On Tape: Wild Fox Attacks Man

Independent – In pursuit of London’s Public Enemy No. 1