I saw a thing in the garden (1 Viewer)

I didn't know there were families of deer living in urban areas outside of the phoenix park though. Around where I live is overrun with foxes, i think that is the norm now. I like them, although they seem a bit mangey when you see them up close. What do urban foxes live on? If it was the bins I presume you'd see overturned bins and rubbish strewn around the place fairly regularly but that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't think they're eating cats either.
 
Urban foxes: Diet
Foxes are omnivorous, i.e. they will eat anything. Their diet depends on the food available in the area where they live. In Bristol, London and Oxford the largest component of their diet is scavenged items such as meat, bones, bread and bird food. Wild mammals, birds and invertebrates are also common.

bristoldiet.jpg

The diet composition of urban foxes in Bristol.

'Invertebrates' is a category that includes earthworms and insects, such as beetles, cutworms (moth larvae) and adult craneflies (daddy-long-legs). For instance, in Bristol insects make up to nearly 10% of a fox diet and earthworms about 6%.

In certain areas, the majority of scavenged food is not scavenged at all, but it is provided by local residents. In Bristol in the early 1990s, 10% of residents regularly fed foxes.

Since foxes are very adaptable and eat whatever food is available, fox diet varies locally; in London, for instance, wild mammals, birds and invertebrates compose a larger part of the diet than in Bristol. But this is diet for London as a whole. In industrial areas in London, for instance, foxes eat more rats and pigeons than in the urban fringes.

londondiet.jpg

The diet composition of urban foxes in London.

Diet also varies seasonally: foxes eat more earthworms and birds in spring and early summer, more mammals in winter, insects in summer and fruit in the autumn.

The fox website | Urban foxes | Diet
 
Introduced to our garden: rescue hedgehogs, and frogs. Former has been posted about on the cute lifestyles thread. They've gone to ground now seemingly. We regularly get foxes in the garden, a squirrel on rare occasions, and we've had a couple of sparrowhawk kills. And we see bats too. We're quite near dcu.
 
I didn't know there were families of deer living in urban areas outside of the phoenix park though. Around where I live is overrun with foxes, i think that is the norm now. I like them, although they seem a bit mangey when you see them up close. What do urban foxes live on? If it was the bins I presume you'd see overturned bins and rubbish strewn around the place fairly regularly but that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't think they're eating cats either.
We're right at the edge of Dublin, there are goats a little further out the road.
 
Closest I ever was to a fox in the wild was that winter of 2010 when it snowed A LOT (we were living near Coolmine at the time) and I opened the bedroom curtain one night to see one standing right outside the window, just a few feet away. We both looked at each other like 'You're not supposed to be there.'

Where we are now, the garden is walled on all sides so no hope of a hedgehog, and no evidence of foxes. Just saw a blackbird picking berries off the creeper thing beside the patio, though, so it's all good.

South Africa (when I used to go there once or twice a year) is great for the aul wildlife, in contrast. Hadedas laughing in the trees. Geckos eating grasshoppers as you do. Preying mantises out for a stroll. I saw a tree covered in giant black ants, too.
 
Maybe it's because I used to spend more time crawling around the garden than I do now but I remember there being a lot more random insect life around. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those "bloodsucker" mites for example. I will say that whatever flowers we have in the garden are attracting a lot of butterflies which is nice. And bees like flowering thyme.
 
I miss NZ's birdlife, the Tui sings a beautiful song and Pukeko's were entertaining madzers by the side of the road. Falcons everywhere as well.


In regards Foxes, we used to see groups of them, a good 5 or 6 at a time, hanging around the wasteground on the other side of the royal canal when I lived in East Wall. I didn't even know they hung out in groups like that.
 

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