Have a look around any housing estate in towns and cities in Ireland, usually around sunset, and you are sure to meet an urban fox or two prowling the streets and gardens on the hunt for food.
These beautiful animals are a prime example of a species who have had to learn to adapt to their rapidly changing environments, with thousands of housing estates built over the rural landscape these foxes used to call home.
Now The National Biodiversity Data Centre is running a survey covering seven of the most populated cities and towns across Ireland, asking us all to keep an eye out for these amazing little creatures, and let the centre know where and when you spotted them.
The NBDC says that ‘understanding their distribution and behaviour of foxes across urban areas can shed light on the needs of the animals and the potential of cities to provide for them’.
‘This project will provide valuable data for conservation planning in Ireland and finding solutions for potential human/wildlife conflicts’.
If you live in or close to Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Derry, Galway, and Waterford, and you would like to get involved in trying to help our native ‘Madra Rua’ or ‘Sionnach’ in more modern Irish, then you can simply get a notebook and pen, and jot down when and where you see Mr and Mrs Foxy.
If you hear a type of screeching at nighttime, a little bit like the sound of cats fighting, it could be foxes playing and scavenging in your garden. Their sound can be quite frightening, until you realise its just these little red dog-like animals having a rare old time rooting the bins in your garden.
Experts on these creatures, say evidence of fox activity can be found in various forms, including tracks, scat (poop) prey remains, fur clumps, and trampled flowerbeds.
Foxes can harbour parasites so we recommend you don’t handle their droppings’!
There are a number of organisations trying to document the numbers of these little animals that are living in our towns and cities, in order to try to devise a way to best help them survive their urban environments.
The public can help to do this, by keeping our eyes open for these little guys, trotting down the avenues and in and out of gardens in a town near you and by contacting the National Biodiversity Data Centre with your findings.
