Urban Wildlife

Fort Amherst is one of my favourite places in St. John's. I try to go over there at least once a week while the weather is nice. It's a decrepit crumbling mess, but I love it. Every now and then something amazing happens while I'm there. Last summer I saw a seal playing in the water. And last fall I saw a weasel there - it came right next to me, literally centimetres from my feet, and glared up at me.

I'm not sure why I decided to go to Signal Hill tonight instead of Fort Amherst as I had planned. I wanted to test my bear bangers and when I left the house I just went east instead of west. But I had a nice walk out along the cliffs and found a quiet spot to make a racket. I shot off one banger. It did what it was supposed to do - it shot straight up in the air and made a big noise. It was a calm night so the echo of the shot rumbled along the cliffs like thunder. The banger actually put off quite the show, so I thought better of setting off a flare so close to the city, and I packed up my gear and turned to walk home. Then, out of nowhere, a fox lunged out of the bushes and ran towards me!



















Coming at me through the darkness it scared the daylights out of me first, but when I yelled it stopped in its tracks. It was just curious, and so was I. We played a sort of game of hide and seek for the next 20 minutes, and it came within 3 metres several times. It followed me most of the way back towards my bike, and probably would've kept following me if I hadn't deliberately scared it away before I got back to The Battery.

This is an interesting situation. Not only did the banger fail to scare away this (harmless) predator, but I think the noise actually attracted it. How's it going to work on a polar bear?