Tag: Fox

Bat-eared fox

Bat-eared foxes are hard to mistake due to their huge ears, which allow them to hear insects under the ground.

Bat-eared fox

The bat-eared fox, like many so called species of fox is not a true fox, but actually comes from the Genus Otocyon. Recent work genetic work has allowed them to be placed (with reasonable confidence) as sister clade to Nyctereutes (racoon dogs) and Vulpes – the true foxes.

There are two subspecies, one which exists in Southern Africa, and the other which inhabits east Africa, however these are not different enough to be separate species. As you can see from the map, these two populations are not split by a huge distance and it is quite possible that at one time they were one super population.

They are found in the Kruger, though only seemed to arrive in recent times.

Below is a video of this species. Below that is a list of any blog posts which mention this species.

Beneath both of this, we are eager to list any places where you can see this species in the wild. Should you run somewhere, where this species is found, get in touch, we are eager to help people to find you. Click on “list your wild place” it is quick and simple to add your destination, should anyone wish to then visit you, there is a simple form which allows them to book your destination through the website (we work on commission so there is no risk to being listed).

The bat-eared fox is in a safe position, being listed as IUCN as least concern.

Racoon dog

Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

The common raccoon dog (also known as the (Chinese or Asian racoon dog, to distinguish it from the Japanese racoon dog)is a species which is found in east Asia. Although named for its facial markings, it is not closely related to raccoons and, although part of the dog family, it is more closely related to the fox.

This animal has been widely introduced in Europe due to regular escapes from fur farms.

Common raccoon dogs are omnivores that feed on insects, rodents, amphibians, birds, fish, reptiles, molluscs,  crabs, sea urchins, human garbage, carrion, and eggs, as well as fruits, nuts, and berries.

Wolves predate them, and eat many in the spring. In Russia, wolves can account for as much as 2/3 of the deaths. Other animals like badgers and lynx will kill them, but generally do not go out of the way to do so. A range of birds of prey also target them.

They are the only canid to hibernate. There are around 4 subspecies. The Japanese racoon dog was thought to be a subspecies until recently when it was elevated to being its own species. They are one of the species that is thought to be have spread covid, and there are other illnesses that their introduction has caused to arrive in new countries.

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World maps: explore

This website aims to make it easy for those living with wildlife, and those who would like to see it, to find each other. Where-ever the wildlife, if the local people do not benefit it will not survive.  Please note, on some computers these maps can take 10 seconds to load.

Explore the worlds wilds, through the map above (each country contains a list of any wild areas within it – world maps for each fo these can be found at the top of the page -“wild places, “shadow of mankind”, “Hides”, “Future places” & “sightings board”), or the species in the expandable section below. Add your destinations, by clicking on “list your wild”. Scroll down to read our latest wild news.

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    Species watch

    Species watch

    All species are important, often reintroductions have failed because a small unnoticed animal was missed. Over time, we will amass pages for as many species as possible. However, just as important is  seeing how species are closely related. As such as well as looking at species from a specific ecosystem or family, we will also include family trees of many of the families on earth. It should be noted, that this is to help you find wildlife you wish to see, so will never link to every species. In either way, these links to these will be placed at the top.

    Mammal family tree
    Wild cat family
    Wild dog family
    Primate family
    African Savannah
    Bear family tree
    Antelope family tree
    Bovini or cattle family tree
    Equidae: Genus for horses (horses, donkeys and zebra)
    Cervidae family (deer) here red deer
    Camelid family (camels and Llamas)
    Aardvark
    Hyaenidae
    Elephant family
    Hippo family
    Rhino family
    Pinnipeds: Seals, Sealions, Fur Seals and walruses
    Crocodiles, Alligators, Caimans, Gharials, False Gharials
    Lizards
    Snakes
    Amphibians
    Birds general
    Emporer-penguins Genus Aptenodytes Not threatened 256,000 breeding pairs
    Flightless birds
    Predatory birds
    sea, water birds and waders
    Mid to small birds
    Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises Species
    Shark Species
    Tiger - all subspecies
    Jaguar
    Lion - all subspecies
    Leopard - all subspecies
    Clouded Leopard & Sunda Clouded Leopard
    Snow Leopard
    Cheetah - all subspecies
    Lynx family (this is the Eurasian Lynx)
    Wildcat
    Cougar
    Sumatran Orangutan
    Chimpanzee
    Boonobo
    Gorilla
    African hunting dog
    wolf
    arctic fox
    polar bear
    Panda
    Bear species (the rest of the family)
    Red panda
    Hyrax family tree (yellow spotted hyrax)
    Sus or pig family
    bee eater familly
    Vulture family tree
    Hedgehog - European hedgehog and family
    Hamster family (Turkish hamster )
    Elephant shrew (western rock elephant shrew)
    Beaver species
    Common vole (possibly vole family in future)
    Siberian ibex
    Naked mole rat family
    Mexican ground squirrel and the ground squirrel family
    Large treeshrew photo credit Daderot CC0 1.0
    Rat family (brown rat)
    Pangolin family
    Eagle family
    Owl family
    Original paper - OrthoMaM: A database of orthologous genomic markers for placental mammal phylogenetics. Ranwez V., Delsuc F., Ranwez S., Belkhir K., Tilak M. & Douzery E. J. P. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2007, 7 : 241.
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    Republicans and fox news have decided that cut Biden has promised to make will mean 4 pounds of meat a year

    The need for America to cut it’s carbon footprint by 50% in the next decade under biden’s plan has been attacked to absurd proportions.

    Republicans have been arguing against doing something about climate change for decades. It should therefore be borne in mind that the speed of cuts necessary now has been made necessary by previous republican governments. Now this has to be remembered that this did not come from something Biden said, and in there more honest moments some republicans will admit this, unfortunately for the time being though it is clear that the noisy republicans are all in with this fake attack. 

    Here is an explanation of the problem

    Continue reading “Republicans and fox news have decided that cut Biden has promised to make will mean 4 pounds of meat a year”

    France – Alps

    The French Alps

    The French Alps cover an area of 38,000 square km, or just over 15,000 square miles. As with many other European countries, France has not been happy to share its space with predators, and so all were exterminated by the the second world war

    The French Alps border the Alps from many other country and has a result wildlife from the rest of the alps has been able to spread. Back in the 1995 some of the Italian wolves started migrating across the border,  On this occasion the wolves set up a territory and became established. Over the next 25 years the wolves have increased dramatically so that now there are between 500 and 600 living in the french alps. While they have been expanding far into France the core consisting of 50% of their population is still in the French Alps.

    A view of the French Alps

    There are no bears in the french alps, they still exist further south in Italy, as well as in the Dinarac alps that run from northern Italy, east and south into the Balkans down to Albania in the South East. It is therefore possible that they will return on their own in time, and given a young dispersing bear can cover large distances, it is always possible for them to return. The important thing is to remember that this is prime bear habitat, and that it is therefore highly likely that one day they will be back.

    However, apart from the returning wolves there are now a few lynx that live wild within parts of the French Alps.There are other mountain ranges that lie close by which host more lynx, however I have listed them separately. While lynx tourism is a fantastic boost to the country, it should be noted that lynx are incredibly shy and so are not seen often. This shouldn’t detract from the interest though as their impact on the ecosystem is very clear. When walking in areas with animals like lynx, looking for signs of their presence can be a rewarding pass time – particularly with young children who are unlikely to have the patience to see the animal assuming it will appear anyway. Tracks and droppings are often not to hard to find.

    Different parts of the French alps have different levels of human presence. If you are looking for wilderness, the Southern french alps are one of the wildest regions of western europe.

    Chamois mouflon and marmots are common here as well as roe deer.


     

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    The French Alps cover a large area, and the wildlife is pretty wide spread.  Unfortunately often to see wild animals in their native habitat you need a mix of luck and patience with a little knowledge mixed in. As we make links these will appear below the news section below.

    Back to the France page 

    Hides

    Hides

    There are many animals that are almost impossible to see. This is for a variety of reasons, but the most common is that the animal is nocturnal and or shy.

    For this reason hides are very useful. They essentially consist of something that the people can sit in, so that they are invisible to the wildlife in the area, allowing the wildlife to approach without fear.

    In the UK the majority of hides are set up for bird watching, though I have also visited badger hides. In Europe the majority of hides are set up to watch bears (many were once hunting hides), though if lucky wolves can be seen from these on occasion as well. In Africa there are all sorts of animals to be seen from a hide at night – generally animals rarely seen during the day, such as Aardvark.

    Some hides have beds so you stay in them throughout the night, others are used just in the evening or the morning. Also of interest is where the hide is, for instance if the hides below lies in Sweden. Due to its latitude, during the summer months it is bright enough to see for much of the night, which obviously makes visits more valuable. Other hides will have night vision googles, still more will mount infrared or visible lightsi

    Here is the wildSweden bear hide. Other than bears (we saw 6), our visit included a wolf, badger fox squirrels an various birds

    If you own or operate a hide and would like to be listed on this page please click here

    Forest of Dean

    Forest of Dean - Boar Watching

    The Forest of Dean is perhaps one of the biggest and healthiest woodlands within the UK.

    Part of this is down to its significant population of wild boar.

    Before humans hunted wild boar to extinction, they were a highly important part of our ecosystem, and generally woodlands in the UK show their absence.

    What do I mean? One of the benefits of wild boar is that their rooting behavior. While humans often do not like this, as this rooting behavior can destroy gardens or picturesque roundabouts,  areas that have had this treatment are perfect for trees to germinate and start to grow.

    Indeed we were astounded walking around the forest to see so many small copses of new tree nurseries. In this sense wild boar fulfill a similar niche of being ecosystem engineers as beavers in rivers.

    Apart from the boar, there is a healthy population of deer. Roe deer exist here naturally. Fallow deer were introduced by the Normans and this is the most common species to see. In recent years Muntjac deer have also recently become established and are fascinating. There are a small number of red deer that still exist though seeing these is a lucky day.

    Adult rooting with boarlets (or as some call them Humbugs)
    One of the big advantages of boar presence is a reduction of ground cover

    Wild boar are surprisingly large animals and we have had a couple of encounters with them on our visits.

    The best way to spot them is by driving some of the back roads in the early evening.

    I have once spotted a family from the car, and this year two boar ran past while we were walking a forest path.

    Both were in a similar location. I will put together a page of information that will be sent with any booking made from the accommodation further down the page, or I can provide just this information for £10 if you have found a place to stay elsewhere.

    View of the forest
    River Wye running through
    Boar track among dog tracks
    Dung beetle at work
    Droppings - Pine marten?
    More rooting behavior signs

    The Forest of Dean is a truly wild woodland. While it is scattered with villages and towns, this is the only place I have seen beetles actually behaving as dung beetles, in the UK.

    The government has also started a process of translocating pine martens to the area, and while the animal is shy, signs of its presence will increase over the next few years. If the translocation is successful, then it will also slowly remove the grey squirrels from this wood, which apart from being good for the health of the trees, will allow red squirrels to recolonize.

    Visiting a place like this allows you to hunt for signs of the animals such as tracks, as well as spotting the actual animal itself.

    Boar are highly intelligent, and fascinating to see. Care should be taken as they can be dangerous, particularly when they have young.

    Places to stay

    Below is a variety of lodgings which are close to wild parts of the forest. There is also a link to search all accommodation available within the forest of dean. Any bookings support the work of the site. The places we have listed are close to where we have had our sightings, however boar are found throughout the forest so do not feel restricted to just the places we listed.

    Campsites will be listed below the hotels.

    Link to search all available lodgings listed on booking.com throughout the Forest of Dean
    Inglewood House Monmouth, prices from £90
    Demense Farm Guesthouse, monmouth, prices from £122
    Raglan Lodge, Monmouth, prices from £40
    [booking_product_helper shortname=”forest of dean”]
    Forest Walk Coleford, prices from £60
    Lodge rooms, Coleford, prices from £80
    Bell Hotel Coleford, Prices from £60
    Angel Hotel Coleford, Prices from £99

    Campsites coming soon

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    Fox Hunt on the edge of Wales crosses through a nature reserve

    Fox hunting was banned in the UK a substantial time ago. In theory people do not hunt foxes anymore, the traditional hunting organisations now follow a trail set down. 

    This is, I am sure, great fun, however there are significant numbers of people who dislike it, as it is not uncommon for a fox to accidentally be killed on these trips.

    Continue reading “Fox Hunt on the edge of Wales crosses through a nature reserve”

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