The cute and curious Fox by Donie

The cute and curious Fox may have an undeserved reputation

  

FEW animals better highlight the urban-rural divide in Ireland than the fox.

The fox is not alone bound up in mythology, it is also very much part of real life no matter where you go. 

It can be found prowling city streets and suburbia, after dark, and is viewed by urban people with a mixture of fascination and curiosity. Their country cousins, however, tend to take a different view, treating an madra rua with a suspicion which is ingrained.

Going back to the days when most rural people kept fowl, the fox was seen as an enemy. An early lesson in life learned from an ageing grandmother was to ensure that all hens and chickens were safely locked up well before dark. Securing the henhouse was the last chore of the day for many a country child. An important task it was, too.

Any hen not accounted for in the evening’s round-up was unlikely to survive the night in the open.

Though fowl have long since disappeared from most farmyards, the fox is still seen as a pest in the countryside. To sheep farmers, for instance, the fox is a predator of young lambs. There is a school of thought that the fox has sometimes been blamed in the wrong — it can be unclear whether it has actually killed a lamb, or just feeding on a lamb carcass, according to a new book, Ireland’s Wildlife Year.

General editor Eric Dempsey, well-known bird guide, author and photographer, points to some overlooked facts concerning this highly adaptable creature. The fox, for example, plays an important role in controlling rabbits, rats and mice and much of its diet consists of earthworms, beetles and a variety of fruits.

Not quite as a familiar as the fox, though we are beginning to see more of it, is the humpback whale.

Watching this giant launch its 40-tonne body out of the ocean, before crashing back with a huge splash, is a breath-taking sight.

Once almost hunted to extinction, the whale is making a recovery and can be seen more frequently off the south and west coasts, as the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group regularly reports.

Wildlife enthusiasts will have heard recordings of the song of the humpback whale and some people believe the haunting traditional tune, Port na bPucai, from the Blasket Islands, is based on it.

A newcomer to Ireland is the Muntjac, a small, hunched deer about the size of a setter dog. There have been sightings in Wicklow and Wexford of what, according to the book, is almost certainly the Chinese Muntjac, which has become well established in southern England.

But, it is uncertain if the Muntjac was deliberately imported and released here, or escaped from private collections.

The 264-page book, which surveys the four seasons in the natural environment, is beautifully illustrated with photographs of numerous mammals, birds, plants and landscape scenes. It traces the growth of plants and animal movements throughout the calendar year.

As might be expected, the photography is superb. Some of the pictures almost jump, or fly, out of the page and a magnificent image of a long-eared owl caught the eye.

The Irish translation of the owl’s name, ceann cait (cat’s head), is apt for it does look like a cat in feathers. Long-eared owls are rarely seen before dark, but their distinctive ‘oo-oo’ call can be heard emanating from woodlands where they nest. The young can give loud, squeaking calls, quaintly described as being like the ‘creaking of a rusty gate’.

How nature is governed by the seasons is also traced in this valuable book. Animals have developed strategies by which they can live and breed in varied conditions. There is a good time to give birth — when the weather is warmer and there’s enough food for a lactating mother and the weaned young. Thus, most animals rear their young during the late spring and high summer.

For birds, winter can be a tough time, but our food supply and the variety of native habitats ensures enough birds survive to either breed again in Ireland, or migrate back to their northern breeding grounds. Also, more people seem to be feeding birds.

In late autumn, many birds grow new feathers to combat the cold, while extra fat put on means some can weigh as much a third more in winter than they do in summer.