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I guess this belongs in "Nature," although the situation is fairly unnatural.
There's been an explosion of opossums in New York City recently. And how did they come to be here? The city's own government brought them in as (hold onto your hat, if you're wearing one) a means to combat rats.
Evidently, someone in city government didn't do really well in biology class. Opossums neither eat nor kill rats. And now they've become at least as big a problem.
Poor opossums! I can't imagine where they are living, it would be impossible for them to avoid humanity in such tight quarters. Many people are terrified of them, especially those unused to wildlife, but opossums are not as dangerous as people think. They come in through the cat door in our garage all the time, we just mind our own business and they mind theirs.
i find it hard to believe that anyone could be dumb enough to think possums will eat rats, and to go about actively importing them. it seems that there's a single councilman who made this claim, but everyone else seems to deny it.
the evidence is conflicting.
Quote:
City Councilmember Domenic Recchia told the New York Post that city is to blame for the out-of-control opossum population. Recchia claimed that a decade ago the city had brought in the opossums to take care a rat problem. However, the city’s Health Department has no record of this action, the paper reports.
Quote:
Although the Health Department claims to have no record of Operation Opossum, Brooklyn Councilman Domenic Recchia insists that city officials presented the plan at a 2007 borough forum to address the rat infestation. Minutes of the next meeting of Community Board 15, which contain the advice “City brought possums in to take care of rats,” support the councilman’s claim.
I find it hard to believe that New York City brought in opposums. In fact, I don't believe it. Opposums live in many large cities since they adapt well to human environments. Plenty of them live in the City of Detroit and in suburbs throughout southeast Michigan.
If, indeed, they were "brought in" in 2007, that's simply not enough time for them to have a "population explosion".
We had a possum living in south east L.A. suburb. You'd be surprised what animals can live next to Man. I saw a red fox in Oklahoma City once at 5 AM. No, not at the zoo.
We had a possum living in south east L.A. suburb. You'd be surprised what animals can live next to Man. I saw a red fox in Oklahoma City once at 5 AM. No, not at the zoo.
My neighbor across the street has a family of 3 foxes come every evening to be fed "supper". The Mom and Dad have been going to her place for years. They never bother us and they just wait patiently like a dog for their chows. The cats sit just a few feet away from them too. They come just before dusk.
My neighbor across the street has a family of 3 foxes come every evening to be fed "supper". The Mom and Dad have been going to her place for years. They never bother us and they just wait patiently like a dog for their chows. The cats sit just a few feet away from them too. They come just before dusk.
Wow they are lucky because fox will kill small animals like cats.
My neighbor across the street has a family of 3 foxes come every evening to be fed "supper". The Mom and Dad have been going to her place for years. They never bother us and they just wait patiently like a dog for their chows. The cats sit just a few feet away from them too. They come just before dusk.
A lot of foxes are being driven into suburbia due to the expansion of the coyote population. Coyotes kill foxes and while they too can live near man there are a lot more of them out in the rural areas than there used to be.
My neighbor across the street has a family of 3 foxes come every evening to be fed "supper". The Mom and Dad have been going to her place for years. They never bother us and they just wait patiently like a dog for their chows. The cats sit just a few feet away from them too. They come just before dusk.
We have foxes too, both red and occasionally gray. They have never bothered our cats, we see foxes carrying small mammals like chipmunks in their mouth sometimes. Once I watched one following a flock of turkeys across our yard, the fox just watched and the turkeys weren't even bothered by it. Foxes are pretty small. I've seen foxes go after chickens, though. That's an easy meal for them.
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