Not Exactly Lions and Tigers and Bears but, Oh My!

As I was walking home from work tonight (ok, from the grocery/yoga studio/wine shop errand I was running) I spotted a fox. I was riveted to the pavement until he slinked off into the brush. I'd say he was a teenager and after a brief staredown between us, he turned glorious tail and ran.

I am, of course, speaking of an actual fox, not a man, and I saw him on the banks of the river by my house. Which is in the middle of Dublin. Dublin Proper, not the outskirts by the forest that we don't have. This city never ceases to astound me. Since I've been here, I've seen several seals peeking out of the water at me, seagulls on the ponds, ducks on the sea. Every morning when I walk to work I see a Heron standing in the park across from the house of the woman that feeds him bread every morning. I've seen the most amazing wildlife sightings in the cities I've lived in than I ever did growing up in Wyoming. In LA we had a raccoon the size of a 10 year old child that visited our back yard and stole the cat food. As I was speaking on the phone one night, I realized that a rather large mole had gotten lost in the yard and was staring me down every bit as intensely as I was staring him down. I queried if I was in any danger and didn't realize it, knowing nothing about moles. Turns out I wasn't. I walked back in the house and he slipped off into the night. In one town I briefly lived in, it wasn't unusual to spot deer running thru the suburbs. And Arlington, Texas has a Bison reserve in the middle of the city. I'm not what people would normally call observant, (indeed, I'm rarely paying attention in life) but even I noticed the wild animals on top of the hill in front of my car. Good thing I was on my way to the dentist, instead of just back from the dentist, when I discovered them. My dentist, still one of my favorite people ever, used to give me valium. Love that man. Anyway, where was I? Right, wildlife in cities.

I just never expected to encounter such a variety of misplaced animals in cities. When a co-worker once told me she had a moose staying in her back yard, I didn't really think anything of it. She lived in a rather mountainous area of Wyoming. And Wyoming is a free range state: you don't fence your cows in, you fence everything else out. I grew up learning how to drive while dodging deer on the highway. Red eyes at night still terrify me. But in Wyoming, all the western states actually, you expect to see nature. That's where nature lives. You are the guest in the scenario. However, in a huge metropolis area it seems unnatural to see a wild creature that isn't pierced, high and tattooed within an inch of his life. It reminds me of those hawks (?) that live on 5th Avenue in New York. Their nest is perched on a ledge of some very expensive building and whenever the superintendant tried to get rid of the nest, both mother and father would attack. So they left it and they've been there for something stupid like 7 years. (any of the new York readers care to validate/refute this for me?) Which makes me wonder if the story I heard on This American Life isn't the wave of the future.

A bird was heard in Central park that was seriously out of context. In fact, I believe it was either extinct or so rare it was almost extinct. Anyway, the bird watchers heard the call and noted that it was of great importance but couldn't locate the bird. Fast forward thru several contacts/emails/phone calls and a huge group has gathered in Central Park to see if this particular bird has returned the following year to the same nesting location. Indeed, a few weeks into Bird Watch, they hear the call again, but fail to locate the bird. An entire season of birding come and gone with no sighting of the bird but experts have verified the bird call. The following year more birders show up. The rare bird sings again and finally one very observant birder notices that an entirely different species is making the call. It would seem he was bi-lingual, unheard of in the bird world. Scientists rationalized that the bird wasn't getting any tailfeather (sorry for the pun) with his natural call and learned the other bird call in order to double his chances of meeting a mate. (sort of like me with Italian!) Poor thing moved to the toughest city in the world and had to pretend to be something he wasn't in order to get a date. I knew the city was tough but I really never thought it was tough on the wildlife as well.

I wonder what my fox was doing at the river tonight. More importantly, I wonder if I should be calling the Irish version of Animal Control to let them know he's hanging around. I know the amount of birds that populate the river, so I doubt he's hungry. But I do worry. In Wyoming, a fox is never a good sign on a farm or ranch. But I wonder how it is in the city. Maybe he's just looking for a new mating call.