Chris Packham = Dick Head

[bryson 562]

Chris Packham: urban foxes can live harmoniously with humans

Urban foxes can live harmoniously alongside humans and people should feel free to feed them, wildlife expert Chris Packham said as he warned against “demonising” the animals.

Springwatch

Martin Hughes-Games, Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan Photo: GLENN DEARING/BBC

By Claire Carter7:30AM BST 07 Oct 2013Comments16 Comments

Packham said reports about foxes attacking humans, going up the stairs in houses and allowing themselves to be picked up were “improbable.”

He cautioned against generating fear of foxes, and said it was easy for people to live alongside them, feeding them in their gardens and watching them from their homes as he does himself.

Confessing to his love for the animal, he said: “An adult fox is for me much better than a tiger.”

But Packham said not to tell his girlfriend, Charlotte Corney, the director of Isle of Wight Zoo which specialises in big cats - and has a tiger cub Corney hand reared from birth.

Packham will follow the lives of two urban fox families in Brighton in this year’s series of Autumnwatch, working with the University of Brighton to show how they can co-exist with humans.

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“In the UK we don’t have a rich animal fauna,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“The biggest mammals that we are left with are badgers, foxes and deer. Foxes are beautiful and young people can be excited by them, it could be their only opportunity to see a wild mammal in the UK. It would be a shame to demonise these things.”

He said urban foxes were responsible for far less attacks in the UK than domestic dogs and stories were often exaggerated because of a lack of understanding.

He added: “Reports have previously suggested foxes would do things that would be very alien. For example going upstairs, allowing people to pick them up and throw them into the garden. That seems improbable to me.

“A lot of people like to feed foxes in their back gardens, to see one of the world’s most beautiful animals from their home.

“It’s about feeding them sporadically, not regularly which can create dependence. I think there are ways we can simply and positively treat these animals.

“We will look at how we can live more harmoniously with them, which can only come from better understanding of their habits.”

He said he wants to discourage people from feeding foxes by hand or every day as they would come to associate a link between humans and food. He said while he didn’t have all the evidence about attacks he would be asking University experts these questions during the show.

The programme, also presented by Michaela Strachan and Martin Hughes-Games, will be broadcast live from Leighton Moss in Lancashire. The team will follow the story of Britain’s biggest migrant, the Silver y moth, using radar technology to show how hundreds of millions of moths leave England for the Mediterranean every September.

Mr Hughes-Games said: “The silver y moth, their numbers far exceed all the birds that will leave the UK and will go to Africa. They are our biggest migrants.

“They wait until the weather settles, find the most powerful wind and can travel up to 60 kilometres per hour for eight hours. They can travel enormous distances.”

The team will follow Red deer and starlings and track how earthworms drag huge leaves underground.

Packham explained they expected to see the impact of Britain’s long period of sunshine and warm weather this year on wildlife.

He added: “The summer we have had was great for butterflies. A lot of people have contacted me saying they have seen a large number of tortoiseshell butterflies. These numbers will be looking for somewhere to hibernate. They will be going into sheds and gardens.”

He said while climate change was about longer term changes, they had already seen the impact of rising temperatures on sea bird populations and eels, which saw around a hundred times more arrive this spring than in 2009.

Autumnwatch will be broadcast on BBC 2 from October 29 to November

[Hot Meat 3,109]

Even years ago when he done really wild road show, could tell he was a swanker..... I'd love to slap him about the chops with a gutted bunny.....

[Its_grim_up_norf 577]

impwobabble do you mean? the spaka cant even talk properly.

 

article is a tree huggers biased view at best. But after seeing charlie jacoby get ganged up on and totally dismissed and outnumbered on that foxes live thing last year, i cant imagine them being talked round.

 

How you can deny that foxes allow themselves into homes etc. when there is video footage of it happening is beyond me. Just shows the sort of blinkered views they have.

[bryson 562]

thats my point is he calling the parents of them 2 poor babies that got attackt last year liers

[Nik_B 3,790]

thats my point is he calling the parents of them 2 poor babies that got attackt last year liers

 

Which makes the anti freaks that sent death threats and other sick messages feel justified in what they do.

[bryson 562]

 

thats my point is he calling the parents of them 2 poor babies that got attackt last year liers

 

Which makes the anti freaks that sent death threats and other sick messages feel justified in what they do.

 

[ChrisJones 7,975]

The only positive I can draw from this, is that he's a very good photographer.

[bryson 562]

still a bell end though

[ChrisJones 7,975]

still a bell end though

 

Yeah. Swollen AND purple...

[cragman 2,770]

I think Packham and a few others have been affected by the grunter cull, so much in fact that they would rather see humans suffering and farms put out of business. He is one very large blackhead on a bell end!

[ChrisJones 7,975]

I think Packham and a few others have been affected by the grunter cull, so much in fact that they would rather see humans suffering and farms put out of business. He is one very large blackhead on a bell end!

 

Craggers? Do you also find it kind of ironic that the show, he presents, takes place on a managed reserve?

[cragman 2,770]

 

I think Packham and a few others have been affected by the grunter cull, so much in fact that they would rather see humans suffering and farms put out of business. He is one very large blackhead on a bell end!

 

Craggers? Do you also find it kind of ironic that the show, he presents, takes place on a managed reserve?

 

I didn't know that fella, but ironic is putting it mildly

 

[Ratreeper 441]

I don't think foxes pose any realistic threat to anyone either, I suppose that makes me a bellend too

 

I think the mentality shown by the comments above are very damaging to the view people have on hunters, I can tell people I love nature which is true and that I think hunting is less cruel than farming etc But what's the point in trying to explain I don't hate animals when they can just log on to an open forum and get the impression we all do...I don't hate foxes, but I understand they need managing in certain circumstances, the same with all hunted species. So why bother trying to fight the hunting ban etc if you give the antis all they need.

[Cleanspade 3,322]

I don't think foxes pose any realistic threat to anyone either, I suppose that makes me a bellend too

 

I think the mentality shown by the comments above are very damaging to the view people have on hunters, I can tell people I love nature which is true and that I think hunting is less cruel than farming etc But what's the point in trying to explain I don't hate animals when they can just log on to an open forum and get the impression we all do...I don't hate foxes, but I understand they need managing in certain circumstances, the same with all hunted species. So why bother trying to fight the hunting ban etc if you give the antis all they need.

i tend to agree with the above. i have a love of wildlife. however i still understand that we have a part to play. i feed the odd fox. i like to see them about. but i also know that they are a pest in many situations. i'm willing to control foxes that are a pest.. i feel i have a balanced outlook. i also think chris packham is a tosser.

[gnasher16 30,118]

" An adult fox is for me much better than a tiger " ...........Better at what ?...........Sounds like the sort of words a 7 year old would come out with not a so called wildlife expert !