Urban animals

Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Fox
 
Fox, Red fox     Rebane or punarebane       Vulpes vulpes
 
Since long already a pair of pricked ears or a fluffy tail in the street lights is no rare view, a moment later the fox has disappeared. An untrained eye need not even catch the movement – their own thoughts and doings are more than enough for people ...
 
Quite many city foxes live among us and not only at Nõmme, Kadriorg or garden cities but in Õismäe, Mustamäe, Lasnamäe.
 
Foxes are not picky about living conditions. This spring already animals, urban going several generations back, were born who have no relations or ties to forest life. The springtime male cubs were forced to find new living territories for themselves during the last few months and that was always in the city. Similar developments we meet in the whole of the urbanised world.
 
The menu of foxes is easy to imagine: small rodents are caught and slain; this is good, but the remainder comes from refuse bins.
 
Rabies cases have not been noted yet, although vaccine has not been spread by aeroplane in cities. As numbers increase the risk of scabies increases; it is caused by a mite, Sarcopies scabiei, and it can in turn infect the favourite pets of cities and communities – dogs and cats. Foxes also carry some other parasites dangerous for man, one of them the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis.
 
Regardless of this an encounter with a wild animal in the urban night is somehow exciting, and one seldom keeps such a meeting only to oneself.


 

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