Why do foxes live in urban areas? | |||
Sind Are “urban foxes” animals forced to leave the countryside or do they constitute populations that develop more or less independently from their rural neighbours? The fact is, that human settlements provide most attractive, highly suitable habitats for foxes. | |||
< questions | links > |
Since the 1990’s more and more foxes have been detected in towns, suburbs and villages on the European continent. This is a relatively recent development (for more)
. Moreover, fox populations are also rising in rural areas. In Switzerland the number of foxes increased nearly fourfold in that period, a trend which began in the mid 1980s, after rabies was on the decline. Reasons for this trend There are two main explanations why foxes have colonised urban areas:: Firstit is assumed that rural areas can no longer absorb any more foxes. Young foxes looking for new territories wander into areas they would scarcely have lived in earlier, which include human settlements. From this point of view, urban foxes would have originally been migrating rural foxes. A secondexplanation focuses on the way foxes readily adapt to living condi-tions in urban and suburban areas. Over the last forty years enormous urban sprawl has caused human settlements to overlap with the foxes’ traditional habitats. Some foxes living close to towns and villages got used to the constant presence of human beings. Thanks to the improved availability of food (compost heaps, rubbish etc.) these foxes were able to reproduce within urban zones. So it is a logical conclusion to say that urban foxes have developed independently of rural foxes, thus forming their own population. True town dwellers Which of these two explanations is correct? Or are both relevant to the pheno-menon of urban foxes? Genetic examinations within the Integrated Fox Project of the city of Zurich indicate that the urban foxes in Zurich are descended from a few founder animals, there being little exchange with foxes in the surrounding countryside. The urban foxes are Red Foxes just like the rural foxes, however they differ considerably in behaviour from their rural neighbours Related Questions How long have foxes been living in urban areas? Are “urban foxes” different from “rural foxes”? home | © |