Do foxes scavenge in garbage bags? | |||
Animals with good noses can smell the roast in the garbage bag. It is a good idea not to put the bags outside the house until the day the rubbish is due to be collected or, if possible, put the bags in a closed container. | |||
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Papers, packages of food and dirty nappies strewn all over the place are not a pleasant sight. Fortunately, only relatively few bags put out for collection are torn open. But who are the culprits that are obviously attracted by the irresistible odours from their contents? – Cats, martens, foxes, hedgehogs and crows are all possible perpetrators.
An incredibly good nose A good nose that can pick up the scent of hidden food is essential for a fox’s survival. Its keen sense of smell enables a fox to wander about safely even in the dark. Like dogs, foxes sniff each other carefully when they meet. They can identify one another by their smell. A dog fox (male fox) will also identify a vixen on heat. The fox possesses an olefactory mucous membrane that is 24 times larger than that in humans and consists of 450 times more olefactory cells. For example, it can clearly pick up the scent of human footprints over an hour afterwards. So we can assume that a fox has no trouble in smelling the roast in the garbage bag.
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