This week I wanted to share with you some images of one of the neighbourhood foxes. This fellow here makes his rounds though the neighbourhood searching for mice and voles in the snow under bird feeders. There are also folks who hand feed the animals in the neighbourhood. While it is ironic that we rarely question how feeding birds affects other creatures, we are well aware of how feeding foxes or other wildlife puts them at risk because we still fear their wildness. Why is it we are happy to have songbirds or woodpeckers at our feeders but we are annoyed when magpies or squirrels come for our offerings?
Birds are messy eaters as anyone who has a bird feeder is aware. Birds who use a hanging or platform feeder, spill enough seed onto the ground to feed all sorts of other birds and rodents. Rodents such as mice and voles attract foxes and coyotes whose natural prey is rodents. When someone hand feeds a fox or other wild animal that animal associates people with food. They can’t tell the difference between a child or an adult yet when they approach people they are labelled “aggressive”. More likely they are curious but we have become accustomed to the rhetoric of wildlife “management” which doesn’t often hold us responsible for our actions.
It is nice to have the unexpected company of a fox in the neighbourhood. We need to learn to be better neighbours so that the animals that share our yards and streets can grow up and raise their families in peace.
I have no doubt you’ll see more of my wild neighbours in the months ahead. That’s all for this week!