Enjoy!!!

Enjoy!!!

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Foxes, pigeons & squirrels together

Foxes are carnivores /omnivores and their diet would naturally include birds and small mammals.
However the urban foxes must be sufficiently well fed that they have no interest in preying on birds.
In fact the foxes, squirrels and pigeons all feed together.
In this photo the pigeons are on a box, but sometimes they are on the ground close to the fox. And the squirrel doesn't feel trapped by the adult fox.

This photo taken in June is a fox cub who is ignoring the pigeon on the ground. When I first saw the cubs in mid May they would chase the pigeons.



I've noticed that the squirrels and pigeons were initially wary of the young fox cubs, so at least they haven't completely lost their fear of foxes. And the young cubs initially do chase the other animals, so this prey instinct is part of their nature.

This is an older photo of a fox and cat ignoring each other

The only animals that object to the foxes are the crows. They start cawing loudly when a fox is around, but all the other creatures ignore them.

The pigeons and squirrels amuse me as it's usually a race to get to the peanuts that I throw out. Sometimes they both go for the same nut then both back off. Once they collided and the squirrel knocked a few feathers out of the pigeon!



However the pigeons aren't always safe from the foxes. Last year I posted about a pigeon that was attacked, probably by a fox cub - see "Fox cub and pigeon".

And in July 2020 I saw a fox cub eating a wood pigeon.

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