Barbican Living
Barbican animal life
Foxes
At weekends you are possibly more likely to run into a fox than a human. I came across one peeing up against the wall of my block one weekend. A human, that is. The foxes are far more considerate visitors. One fox often spends his evenings sitting on the steps below Defoe House.
Foxes moved into towns between the wars. Railway cuttings provided a route for foxes into towns and they were attracted by the easier pickings, since they will eat most things, and scavenged food forms about a third of their diet. They’re worth having around in a suburban area because they keep down vermin.
I have often seen foxes in the evenings running across Beech Gardens near Ben Jonson House or in the Thomas More Garden. Foxes usually hunt at night and hide up during the day, and you are most likely to see them at dawn or dusk. To my great surprise, it seems that a lot of residents prefer birds of all things. Birds have a very sinister way about them, and there is nothing attractive about the way they hop about. Foxes on the other hand lope around with a nonchalant air, and politely get out of the way if you come across them sitting on the stairs late at night.
You may wonder where they can be living and bringing up their families. Foxes have lived on the burial mound near Barber Surgeons’ Hall (round the corner from Wallside and the circular bit of ruined wall). They probably now live in the Wild Garden in Fann Street. I don’t think anyone knows how many there are. A dog and a vixen produce one litter of about four cubs a year. Life isn’t easy for foxes. About two out of every three foxes dies each year, with half the deaths due to car accidents.
Squirrels
London squirrels are grey squirrels. The grey squirrel was introduced into Britain from America in the late 19th Century and drove out the native red squirrels, which are only to be found in Scotland and Northern England in any numbers. You can see them all over the Barbican. They are seen in greatest numbers in Bunhill Fields among the tomb stones. They have even been seen in the courtyard at Guildhall.
Squirrels don’t just eat nuts; they also eat fungi, bulbs and even eggs and young birds. I assumed squirrels hibernated, but apparently they often don’t; Winter is actually a good time for them, because they store away a lot of nuts and seeds from the autumn. Ironically, it’s the Summer period when they are most at risk from lack of food, so you might think of throwing down some seed in the gardens. Squirrels either build a nest, called a drey, in the high branches of a tree or create a den in a hollow tree. They are known to have nested in the bushy undergrowth on the old burial mound near Barber Surgeons’ Hall.
