by Luna Challis
In my autobiography I told you about how our hens were murdered by three foxes. These foxes are the terror of all the small local animals. I keep a sharp lookout for them. Luckily there are plenty of trees in the Charleston area, and I climb one whenever I see the foxes. Sometimes there are all three together, but often it is just one or two of them that I see.
I was out one day and saw a terrifying sight. A giant female Wedge Tailed Eagle was eating a rabbit on the ground. In the shadow of the gum tree the enormous bird looked almost pure black. Of course, I am a proud predator myself, and I admire other predators. I make a clear distinction between predation and murder. The foxes killed all our hens, not just the ones they needed to eat or feed their babies. Wedge Tailed Eagles kill for food, not for sport like some humans, or as part of a killing frenzy like some animals.
However, while I admired the Eagle, a top predator of the Australian bush, I was also terrified by its hooked beak and mighty talons. I hid well in the bushes.
I’m a specialist hunter like most cats. Although we can catch a wide range of prey, we tend to develop preferences. One cat may become good at catching birds and another might become a specialist rabbit killer. I’m a mouse hunter par excellence. It is true that I sometimes catch mice for practice when I am not hungry, but I don’t kill them, I carry them gently in my mouth and bring them home. Unfortunately, Michael does not like me bringing them inside. Many cats are able to release enough mice near where they live to establish breeding colonies of mice in the house they live in which serve as a reserve in times of mouse shortage.
Humans seem to think that they invented the keeping and breeding of animals as a food source, but we cats have been doing it in a more sophisticated and less cruel form for a very long time.
I like mice, and normally only kill them for food, but they can be stupid and sometimes breed up to plague proportions. This is not good for anyone including the mice which then die in their billions.
It was September, and there was longer grass than usual in the field I was going through. My supersensitive cat senses detected deadly danger. The murderous foxes were stalking me! They had half surrounded me before I saw them. I ran for my life. The foxes were close behind, and under these conditions they can run faster than me. My only chance was to reach the trees on the edge of the field ahead of them. I ran my fastest, but I knew it was doubtful if I would escape. I mentally cursed the incredibly stupid Englishmen who had imported foxes just so they could practice their cruel fox hunting, dressed up in fancy clothes.
The lead fox was less than a metre away when I heard and felt a mighty disturbance behind me. The lead fox had been struck by the Black Death. From the safety of a tree I watched as the Wedge Tailed Eagle lofted into the air with the dead Fox securely held in its mighty talons. The baby Eaglets would have plenty of food that day.
I know that even my friends the Kangaroos are very wary of the Eagles. The Wedge Tail Eagle is one of the few native animals that will occasionally attack and kill a Red Kangaroo.
The Thieves
As I said, I’m a specialist Mouse hunter. It’s true that I have been known to kill the occasional small bird, but I have never tried to kill a native mammal or a large bird. It is also a fact that most of the small birds around Charleston are imported birds like Sparrows or Black Birds, while nearly all the larger ones are Australian natives.
In the Australian bush, there are feral Cats and some of these do specialize in killing native mammals. This is not their fault, but is the fault of those humans that put them in the position where they have to harm the ecosystem to survive.
I’m friends with many of the larger Australian birds like the Cockatoos. I’m afraid of the Eagle, and some other birds do things I don’t like. The Magpies, or Piping Shrikes, do some strange things.
Of course I understand that they need to protect their babies, but they will attack without warning even when there is no threat to the chicks. One day I was out and I saw Fuji walking innocently along the road. Fuji can be naughty but this time he was just minding his own business. He wasn’t wearing his hat that day, and he was alone. A magpie swooped down and hit him on the back of the head. Fuji was hurt, and his head was bleeding. He ran home crying. His mother is a doctor and I suppose she would mend his head with vinegar and brown paper as Jack’s mother did.
Next time I saw Fuji he not only had a hat on, but he was also wearing a mask on the back of his head so that the Magpie would not attack. They only attack Humans from behind, and the mask made Fuji look as if he had two faces.
They are sometimes a nuisance to me as well. Michael puts my food on the table in the kitchen. This is the kitchen of the house, not the kitchen of the shop. He doesn’t even let me into the shop’s kitchen. But Michael often leaves the back door open during the day, and the Magpies fly in and steal my food.
I leave these big birds strictly alone. Another type of bird I avoid is the crow.
The Murder and the Murderers
I only speak one language, Cat, and only understand Cat and English although I can understand a few things in other languages. However, English is a strange language and the words used for a group of animals can be particularly odd. For example, Kangaroos and Australians both go around in mobs and Lions in prides; a group of Owls is a parliament. A group of Crows is called a murder.
The local murder of Crows is a dangerous entity, and one I keep well away from. I have even seen the murder harassing a Wedge Tailed Eagle.
It was breeding season for the Crows and they were feeding some very hungry chicks. Crows are particularly dangerous in breeding season although I have never seen them attack a Human like the Magpies.
One day I was in a tree and witnessed a deadly drama of the animal world. A baby Crow had fallen out of its nest in a different tree from mine and one of the two surviving murderous Foxes found it and killed it. The Fox was carrying the dead baby Crow on its mouth.
I don’t understand Crow, but the screeches of the Crows when they saw the Fox with the dead baby were very eloquent; whatever the actual words meant. The whole murder swooped in to the attack. This was not a precautionary attack like the attack on Fuji by the Magpie. These crows intended to kill. The Fox tried to get away, but the crows were relentless and didn’t stop until the Fox lay dead in the field.
The Foxes