Fears,attitudes and opinions of suburban residents with regards to their urban foxes |
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Authors: | Andreas König |
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Institution: | 1.Wildlife Biology and Management Unit,Technische Universit?t München,Freising,Germany |
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Abstract: | Throughout Central Europe, foxes have taken over urban areas as their habitat. In Southern Germany, these foxes are also carriers
of the small fox tapeworm, which causes a serious zoonotic infection in humans. Therefore, a survey was carried out in a suburb
of the city of Munich. A postal questionnaire was used to analyse the attitudes, opinions and fears of these participants
towards their urban foxes and the background to these attitudes. Questionnaires were sent to all households with gardens and
collected in again via the community council. Seven hundred and seventy-nine or 31% of questionnaires were returned. Only
a few people are afraid of the fox itself; however, 55% are afraid of the fox tapeworm. Worming the animals is the preferred
counter-measure, with 81% in favour. The majority of inhabitants are pleased to see a fox in the community and feel the animals
have a right to live. People are afraid of the tapeworm either because they have children in the household or because of increased
knowledge of the subject or because it has increasingly become an issue. On the basis of the results of this study, it is
to be expected that radical solutions such as killing the foxes are unlikely to be accepted among the population. Worming
of the foxes does, however, meet with general approval. |
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Keywords: | Urban wildlife Human dimension Zoonotic infection Foxes Echinococcus multilocularis |
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