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Mammals It is
very likely that there are mammals using your garden, in your local
park, on your allotment or even around the place where you work, but
you are not often likely to see them. Many of our native mammals
are either nocturnal or very shy, but it is possible to find signs
that they are around. Foxes in particular have become more
common in our towns and villages. They are intelligent animals able to
make use of the resources they find in built up areas, including
dustbins, where they will forage for food. It is estimated that around
15% of the entire British fox population now live in urban areas.
If you think you may have hedgehogs, badgers or foxes in your garden,
you might find their droppings or ‘scats’ which may be deposited in
strategic places. Fox droppings are often left in the same place
every night, as they are used to mark the territory of an individual
animal and you may see them on a mound of grass, a log or anthill.
Fox droppings often contain hair, fur or feathers from mice or birds,
although a large part of a fox's diet is made up of earthworms, beetle
and moth larvae and even fruit such as blackberries although in urban
areas foxes will feed on discarded food from bins. In gardens foxes
will often have a daytime resting place above ground, possibly on top
of a shed especially if it is covered with climbing plants. They
only use a den below ground in bad weather or if the vixen has cubs.
To find out if you have foxes in your area, look out for their
droppings described above, which have a characteristic strong, foxy
smell, or check your garden for small, oval dog-like tracks after a
fall of snow.
Hedgehogs are small mammals that
everyone likes to have around, because many invertebrates that we
regard as garden pests are their main source of food. Roughly
sixty percent of a hedgehog’s diet is made up of beetles and
caterpillars. Another ten percent is earthworms, and slugs only five
or six percent, but hedgehogs are still very useful predators of
these garden pests. Snails are rarely eaten, probably because the
shell is too hard. In the garden hedgehogs will eat a wide variety of
food, and you can encourage them to visit your area nightly by
providing them with dog food or specific hedgehog food which is now
available. This should always be accompanied by fresh drinking water.
Bread and milk should never be given to hedgehogs as it can cause
stomach upsets that can lead to dehydration, especially in
youngsters. If young hedgehogs appear in your garden late in the
summer, they will need extra food to enable them to reach a weight of
450 grams (if they are smaller than this they will not survive
hibernation), so continue to feed them as long as you can. Hedgehog
droppings, which are black and shiny and may be up to 4 centimetres in
length, are often found in gardens. It is usually possible to see
small fragments of the wings of beetles in these droppings. Through spring, summer and
autumn hedgehogs need undisturbed places to make their daytime nests
of grass and other vegetation. In the winter a hibernation nest, generally made of leaves, will be built beneath a hedge, in a tangle
of brambles or under a pile of logs. Try not to disturb log piles or
anywhere else you think there may be a hedgehog. You can provide a
hedgehog box if you wish, in a secluded place in the garden or
allotment.
Badgers sometimes visit gardens
to find food if their sett is nearby, and many people love to watch
them. Like foxes they have a very varied diet and eat a great number
of earthworms. This sometimes causes conflict with gardeners as
badgers will dig in a lawn for the earthworms beneath the surface. If
this is a problem, a lawn that is not watered in dry spells will
attract less unwanted attention from badgers. As with other mammals,
badger droppings are a sign that they may use your garden or allotment
area. These are deposited in small pits or 'latrines' that the
badgers dig on the edges of their territory. Badgers can be encouraged
to visit your garden if you supply food for them. They enjoy a varied
diet and are fond of kitchen scraps, fruit and peanuts.
Bats have declined dramatically
in the UK in recent years. There are 16 species in total in Britain,
but only four of these are common in gardens and built up areas. The
most likely species that you will see around your garden at dusk are the two species of pipistrelle, our
smallest species with a wing span of only 20 centimetres. They are
usually the first bats to emerge at dusk and you may notice their
quick, slightly fluttery flight as they take the same route around
your garden four or five times. One reason for the decline of
bats is loss of suitable roosting sites. In the summer months they
require a warm daytime roost especially if they are breeding.
Buildings are a favourite place as long as there is access to a small
sheltered space in a porch, a shed or under the eaves of the house,
and you may find their tiny black droppings beneath roosting places.
Unlike mouse droppings, these will crumble to a fine powder when
rubbed. If bats do roost in your loft, remember that they are
protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and should not
be disturbed without permission. To encourage bats you can put up a
bat box on a sunny, south facing wall. Boxes made of ‘woodcrete’ or
special ‘bat bricks’ are preferred to wooden ones as they are better
insulated. Winter hibernation roosts are more likely to be in the
countryside in hollow trees or old railway tunnels.
There are many other small
mammals that may visit even the tiniest garden, and you might catch a
glimpse of a shrew, vole, mouse, mole or weasel. If you live in the
north of the country you may be lucky enough to see red squirrels or
even pine martens.
Rabbits, muntjac deer and grey
squirrels may all visit our gardens and these mammals can be
destructive, but many people still enjoy seeing them. The antics of
grey squirrels can be fun to watch, but they can destroy bird feeders and
damage trees. If grey squirrels visit your garden frequently,
squirrel-proof bird feeders are an effective way of preventing them
from eating all your bird food!
There are three important things
you can do to ensure the mammals around you visit your garden.
Firstly, an undisturbed area will provide shelter for finding food and
possibly breeding. Secondly, growing a wide range of insect
attracting plants will benefit almost all mammals – even badgers and
foxes eat their share of these and bats, shrews and hedgehogs
will certainly benefit. Lastly, a pond or drinking place with easy
access may provide you with opportunity to watch some of our native
mammals in your own garden.
Amphibians
Frogs, toads and newts use our
ponds for breeding in springtime but spend much of the rest of the
year in the surrounding habitat – hence the importance of getting that
right when your pond is constructed. Spawning of frogs can start as
early as January in the south, toads spawn a little later, usually in
March or April and newts latest of all (April or May) but the breeding
of all these amphibians is dependent on temperatures and weather
conditions.
The common frog is the most likely
amphibians to use a garden pond for breeding – indeed there are
thought to be more common frogs in suburban areas now than in the
countryside. They are not particularly fussy about the type of pond
they use, and generally lay their jelly-like blobs of spawn in the
relatively warm and shallow water close to the pond edge. Common Toads
lay their spawn in long strings like transparent necklaces with the
black eggs visible along the length, and they wind the spawn around
aquatic plants. In general toads prefer a pond with a good deep area
of cool water and sometimes frogs and toads won’t co-habitat in the
same pond. The common newt, also known as the smooth newt, will find
its way into even the smallest pond. They lay their eggs singly and
attach each one to the undersides of the aquatic plant leaves in a
pond, especially the oxygenators. The eggs are tiny and usually very
difficult to see. Great crested newts will also use a garden pond, but
this declining amphibian does not have a regular distribution in
Britain and is a protected species. Great crested newts are almost
black and quite large – they can reach up to 18 centimeters in length
- so they can be distinguished by size and colour from common newts
which are usually a muddy brown. Great crested newts are fully
protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and their
habitat should not be disturbed in any way. If they are locally common
in your area they will happily co-habit with other newt species, but
it is worth remembering that they will eat the spawn and small tadpoles of
rrogs which may deplete your population of these amphibians.
If amphibians of any species are
around in your area they will soon find a new pond and make it their
home. Importing frogspawn from other ponds is an easy way to spread
disease and best avoided.
Reptiles
If you are fortunate you may
find that slow worms and grass snakes use your garden. Both of these
animals are attracted to undisturbed habitats especially compost heaps
in gardens, where temperatures are often warm. Grass snakes also
like water so a wildlife pond, especially if it has a good frog
population, will also attract grass snakes. Slow worms also prefer to
inhabit undisturbed areas of garden where perhaps there are piles of
stones or rubble, with overgrown vegetation or in log piles. Adders and smooth snakes
are rarely found in gardens. Similarly, lizards are quite
uncommon in gardens unless you happen to live in an area where they
are abundant.
If you have any of these
reptiles in your garden, you should be aware that
they have some level of protection under the Wildlife and Countryside
Act of 1981.
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