Silver Foxes Battle Rats in China
Silver foxes are normally bred in China for their exquisite fur, which is used in garments, but dire situations often call for drastic measures. In a way that is compatible with the forces of nature, authorities in China have bred and trained an army of silver foxes to combat a terrible influx of rats that are threatening the welfare of a once vast expanse of grasslands.
In 2004, the west China’s Xinjiang government bought 20 foxes from a local fur farm and set up a fox training headquarters in Altai Prefecture. Over the course of six years, their numbers increased to 284 at which point they were all recently released in the wild.
“The silver fox was chosen to be the rat fighter for its distinctive ability to run, hunt and live under the harsh living conditions on the prairie… Foxes are excellent natural predators. One fox can catch about 20 rats per day. There has been a decline in the rat population in several counties where the measure has been adopted,” said official Ni Yifei.
In one of the areas where foxes were released, the rat population has dropped to 70% and the number of burrows per hectare of land has dropped from 50 to 15!
Other Chinese provinces are still in danger from the rats, and despite the success of the fox program, there is much more progress that still needs to be made in order to save more than nine million hectares (22 million acres) of grassland in northern China’s Mongolian Autonomous Region.
The disease-infested rats have taken over more than ten percent of the grasslands because of the unusually persistent drought that has permeated the area. Rats are more adaptable to dry environments.
Authorities in other sections of the province have tried to use other animals like wolves, chickens, eagles and even ducks to decimate the rat population, and even though everything helps, no method or animal fares as well as the silver fox.
“China mainly relies on poisons to kill rats. This is a green way to tackle the rat problem,” said official, Lin Jun.
Will the silver fox save China from the deadly scourge of rats?
Only time will tell, but so far, so good.
(Link)
By MDeeDubroff on 04-08-2010
