Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Another Faecal Footnote
A serious question to any science-minded Harringavians.
Like many of us, from time to time we have a fox or two that visits our garden. Over the past few days our current visitor has taken to shitting as near to the house as it can. This morning we had two wee piles of foxy shit. One was absolutely covered with flies and the other sported a little beach hat with the slogan "Hey Look No Flies on Me".
The 'nude' shit continues to attract flies some two hours after it was cleared away from the encaustic tile on which it was deposited, the shit-site cleaned with a power hose and then lightly bleached.
Sartorial questions aside, is there any reason why one shit should be so much more attractive to flies than another? (No jokes about the recent selection of Donald Trump please).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Angela on
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One of my children has a book called 'Poo - A Natural History of the Unmentionable' and it says that meat-eating animals (such as foxes) have faeces that usually look very different to those of plant-eaters. Their poo contains hair, fur, feathers, bone and any other bits of the animals they have eaten. These bind the poo together, making it long and untidy. Meat is a rich source of nourishment that's easy to digest.
So maybe one poo contained more of whatever attracts flies.
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The owner of the book has informed me that urban foxes are far more likely to eat food left out by humans (including the contents of nappies) in bin bags etc compared to scavenging rural foxes,so it maybe an adult fox and a young fox poo.
Fascinating but revolting at the same time!
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