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anniedeighnaugh

Food chain

Annie Deighnaugh
9 years ago

So I've been feeding the birds this winter and as a side effect, feeding the squirrels. Well this a.m., I saw a very fat, very happy fox trot by with a squirrel hanging out of her mouth...

Eat and be eaten....

Comments (13)

  • yayagal
    9 years ago

    So true.

  • outsideplaying_gw
    9 years ago

    I'd love to see that around my house actually. Too many squirrels.

  • violetwest
    9 years ago

    better foxes and squirrels than rats. or snakes. Which is why I don't feed the birds.

  • luckygal
    9 years ago

    I'm usually pretty soft-hearted when it comes to wildlife as some have a very hard life. However it was a very happy day for me a couple of years ago when I saw I coyote with a fat marmot in his mouth. The marmots here are not at all endangered and have caused a lot of damage to my garden. The squirrels also cause damage and it wouldn't bother me to see them eaten.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I'm delighted the fox caught the squirrel. We have too many and they live in our barn and do what squirrels do all over everything in there...make a real mess.

  • Elraes Miller
    9 years ago

    Foxes are definitely a problem here, especially cats. But now we have mountain lions wandering down from the mountains. They will take on a large dog, jump a fence. It is also disconcerting thinking about the possibility of physically running into one face to face. i worry about the kids too. A bobcat was in my yard last year, I didn't connect what it was because of a small size. But when it turned around and looked at me, there was no doubt.

    Deer, Bear, Raccoons, have been a norm for many years and really don't pose a problem except for eating their favorite plants/trees outside of fencing, They have no fear of humans or barking dogs. I'll stay far away from the raccoons, they are ficious if encountered.

    If we don't get our environment back, this is going to become worse. The mountain base is 15 min away, I live in an old established area. But bears are wandering quite happily downtown now and we have a fairly sized city with smaller towns on the edge.

  • violetwest
    9 years ago

    If WE don't get our environment back? We took theirs -- why do you think they're in our yards?

    I'm a little too far down the valley for mountain lions, but we do get them occasionally in town. I saw a coyote crossing the street here not too long ago, there. Part of the reason I built a screened in porch which my cats have access to.

  • neetsiepie
    9 years ago

    Wildlife are becomming more and more displaced and as a result, losing their natural wariness of humans. And with development encroaching on the habitat, the cirtters, especially the higher predators, find easy pickings in the urban (rural) environment. Cats & dogs-easy meals for them as domesticated animals have no natural predators.

    Rodentia move in, again, easy access to food, habitat and lack of predators-then then the cycle continues-foxes, coyotes, then bob cats, mountain lions and bears.

    Deer come in because they are free from hunters and predators, and have a HUGE food base to choose from. And yet, people continue to complain about it.

    The wildlife habitat area is huge-you don't have to be in the mountains to be within it. And far, far too many animals are becoming urbanized. Heck, I see bald eagles hanging out at boat ramps just on the other side of the freeways-super easy food for them! We have hawks in our city backyards as chickens are raised and people feed backyard birds.

    As long as we make habitat for the animals, they'll evolve to come knocking on our doors. If you see one bob cat, mountain lion, coyote or bear, you WILL see more soon.

  • blfenton
    9 years ago

    In my neck of the woods (literally) we are not allowed to have bird feeders - it isn't because of the squirrels but because of the bears.

    We actually don't have foxes or mountain lions but we do have the rest.

  • Elraes Miller
    9 years ago

    I didn't mean to say it was ours alone. A general statement regarding the environment as a whole and all life affected. The horrible floods, fires and in our mountains where there are no homes, the habitat is dying taking huge swaths of forests. My son is a research biologist working on the ocean. The affects are seen as broadly as on land. I would never consider myself not to be responsible for what we are seeing and am saddened for the environmental losses.

  • violetwest
    9 years ago

    Understood, Technicolor.

  • violetwest
    9 years ago

    Here's a lovely photo essay about an urban fox family. My goodness those kits are cute!

    http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/wildlife-in-suburbia-photographer-watches-fox-kits-grow-up

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    9 years ago

    Now this is urbanized wildlife⦠[g]

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