Gardening for Nature Presentation

My partner gave a talk - Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden - at the Heritage Center in Rimouski this week. She spoke in English but the colorful poster announcing her talk was in both French and English. Very cool!

A not so shy red fox

Yesterday morning, along the bike trail on the edge of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, near the town of Rimouski, I spotted a red fox with a small rodent dangling from its mouth. I stopped and watched the fox make a quick meal of its prey and then slowly wander off. It showed no fear of me, apparently habituated to humans cycling and walking the trails through the forest.  As a botanist, I find it interesting that while foxes feed primarily on small rodents, they also eat fruits, and in so doing, may disperse the seeds of plants.

The most widespread and successful of the foxes, the red fox occurs throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Eurasia. It was introduced to Australia by humans, and is now considered a pest species. In Russia, the red fox has become domesticated. They're a beautiful animal, but I don't think I will be taking one home  anytime soon. 

Red Fox Along Bike Path

A red fox with small rodent