Foxes

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

17 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

That had to hurt!

Didn't feel a thing. It's like castrating camels with a pair of bricks. If you keep your thumbs clear, not a twinge.

 

13 hours ago, Broadway Clive said:

Not really, its humans that set the boundaries and we've eliminated the fox's predators and competitors.

And yet more: humans create opportunities that promote the survival of those species most like ourselves.

 

13 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Wow! People still have milkmen? Haven't seen one of those for well over twenty years. I thought they had gone the same way as pop wagons and local ice cream vans ...

Sapiens subsps. Galactos/Aeropot/Gelid/Pisca/Panem etc*.  have interbred so promiscuously in the last few decades that taxonomy has given up, and they are now all classed as 'Subvect' without consideration of the motorised carapace or 'van' which they temporarily occupy. The once characteristically refined behaviours of parallel parking adjacent the kerb and dispensing neat packages directly to the customer, have altered out of all recognition. The van now halts in the middle of the roadway and then randomly disgorges contents onto that roadway. The foxes are going to pick up on this soon enough, (back on subject!).

 

*Circa 1960 I think we were at peak: retail dairy, greengrocery, general grocery, meat, fish, baked goods, carbonated drinks, ice cream, solid fuel, paraffin, general hardware. By 1970 commonplace roadside retail was down to dairy, ice cream and illegal narcotics (the latter sometimes from the same vehicles as the first two).

[MarkC]

In my village last year, I was one of the victims of regular thieving by vermin of milk delivered to my doorstep in rhe early hours of the morning by our local milkman. Thing was, said vermin was found to be of the local two-legged variety, with a penchant for illegal narcotics...

 

Mark

[Reorte]

3 hours ago, MarkC said:

In my village last year, I was one of the victims of regular thieving by vermin of milk delivered to my doorstep in rhe early hours of the morning by our local milkman. Thing was, said vermin was found to be of the local two-legged variety, with a penchant for illegal narcotics...

So that's what bluetits are getting up to these days?

[peanuts]

18 hours ago, brianusa said:

We don't have many foxes but raccoons, squirrels and 'possums abound with the occasional black bears.  We had a family of raccoons, mother and four kits and if you can resist them with their cute masked faces, you must indeed be very hardened, even though they dig in the garden and get in the pond!  They have now moved on now and calm is restored.

      Brian.

They are cute little monkeys arent they  ?  meet missy rascal racoon 

[kevinlms]

On 11/09/2019 at 03:32, J. S. Bach said:

That had to hurt!

I was thinking that the local vet might be responsible!

[DougN]

Well here in Australia foxes are vermin. We have a local one here in suburban Melbourne, you might guess from the avatar that we get to hear all about its close location! Next door is a primary school where it feeds. The local council has tried to rid the area of the fox but it is a wryly old fox and managed to avoid all their efforts! On a very still night I did hear the foxes calling to each other but it was very very quiet and it was about 3am! 

[The Stationmaster]

We have a regular visit from Mr Fox in our garden and he very kindly eats anything left out for the birds which they haven't eaten,  Some people living not far away claim to have problems with rats - basically we don't;  Mr Fox gets rid of them although he took his time with one a while back and he also gets the occasional pigeon (thank you).   I do however wish he would take greater care about where he chooses to dump, that is an occasional nuisance.

 

Mr Fox, or Mrs Fox and her offspring, haven't caused us any real problems in all the tome we have lived here although the youngsters did leave their mark by playing on the wet concrete of the garage floor when it was being built.  The biggest problem has been Mrs Fox trying to dig holes in which to give birth but that is very simply dealt with by popping a few bits of flint into the hole - she soon gives up 

 

The muntjac are a far bigger nuisance as they seem to regard certain vegetables as having been planted for them, and them alone.  They also like strawberries which can be a nuisance at times and have occasionally made a mess of teh veg patch while looking for one of their favourite meals although this year we found a way to stop that.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

6 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

...muntjac are a far bigger nuisance as they seem to regard certain vegetables as having been planted for them...

Voracious little devils. Fortunately with our neighbour's cooperation we keep them efficiently fenced out, having been so advised by the previous occupant of our present home. The value of this was seen when near neighbours had a section of their fence demolished by a falling branch two years ago, immediately ahead of going away for three weeks. The muntjacs 'harvested' all their tomatoes, salad and soft fruit.

 

 

 

[Mike Storey]

I wish we had foxes. We just get snakes instead......

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, Mike Storey said:

I wish we had foxes. We just get snakes instead......

Plenty of foxes in Australia (an introduced pest species), please come and help yourself!

 

Oh, no shortage of snakes either!

[J. S. Bach]

8 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Oh, no shortage of snakes either!

I have heard/read about your Aussie snakes!

[BlackRat]

We don't have lions, tigers, bears, giraffes or hippos...........

 

But we do have badgers, foxes and a few other wee beasties.

 

So why do we hunt, gas, poison and label them vermin?

[cb900f]

Because we always know what is best.  Don't we ? Actually the only vermin on this planet is the human being with exceptions of course.

 

Pete

[tomparryharry]

We had foxes, and by & large, they didn't bother us. When they had a barbecue on the patio, and the loud Gangsta Rap music was a bit much......

 

Ian.

[Barry Ten]

We used to have fox visits as regular as clockwork most nights, and yes, we did put food out for them. We watched several generations pass through until about 2 years ago a bout of mange spread through the foxes and wiped them out one by one. So far we've only had one or two passing through since then.

[Reorte]

On 13/09/2019 at 09:21, cb900f said:

Because we always know what is best.  Don't we ? Actually the only vermin on this planet is the human being with exceptions of course.

 

Vermin is any creature that causes problems for us. It's a bit sad that it's become a label for fundamentally unpleasant rather than merely a practical concern though. And yes, hard not to make other humans anything other than an arbitrary exception.

[kevinlms]

23 hours ago, Reorte said:

 

Vermin is any creature that causes problems for us. It's a bit sad that it's become a label for fundamentally unpleasant rather than merely a practical concern though. And yes, hard not to make other humans anything other than an arbitrary exception.

Erm no, vermin is also a term used for creatures that are totally out of place.

 

The fox in Australia is an excellent example, as it is not native and creates havoc by killing all sorts of native wildlife. There is no natural enemy (except man). They are in plague proportions, after being introduced, for the purposes of hunting by the gentry.

 

There are many other examples in Australia, some other notorious ones are, Deer, Camels, Horses, Wild Pigs, Cane Toads and many types of plants. Even the not so humble Blackberry.

[melmerby]

Grey squirrels were introduced fom the USA to UK and carry a pox that kills the native red squirrel without being affected itself.

Again plenty of other invasive introductions.