We decided to run a two week experiment about 30 days ago by providing food of four varieties at a specific time each evening. The invitees were to be any that showed up. We chose 5-7 pm because we are usually at home then and can provide observation and data gathering each day.
The foods we chose were (a) sweet feed, which is probably ground up meal mixed with molasses (b) fruit scraps from our use of apples and pears (c) sunflower seeds and (d) small bits of 69 cent wieners as a meat. Oh, yes, and fresh water in the birdbath was included. With this well balanced diet, we sat and waited.
The attendance was ragged at first, but within a week it settled into a routine that allowed us to make some observations.
The regular attendees were three deer (one six- point buck, one spike horn, one doe), one immature gray fox, a squirrel, countless Red Cardinals and a few titmice. The mockingbird, known in Texas as the junkyard dog of the bird world, was nowhere around as it hangs out on the other side of the house, since they and the cardinal are not particularly good bedfellows. Uninvited attendees were the zillions of fire ants. By the way, the ants this year are particularly invasive, more than any other year in our recollection.
At first, when we simply placed the wiener pieces on the sidewalk, the fox would bat the pieces along the concrete with its front foot to rid the meat of the ants, but still after eating, had to fight off the ants from its mouth with the side of its front paw. So one observation is that the immature fox already knows all about fire ants and how to deal with them.
With the variety of food placed in separately located piles, all was peace and quiet for awhile. The fox went for the meat, the deer for the sweet feed and the birds and squirrels for the sunflower seeds. By now we had learned to place the meat scraps in a bowl situated in a pan of water; the water acting like a moat, to keep the ants off the food.
The deer and the fox both liked the fruit scraps. The deer were protective of the fruit scraps and the fox was well aware of that, warily eyeing the fruit and the closeness of the deer. But deer don't gobble their food and they would occasionally wander off by a few yards giving the fox the chance to move in on the fruit scraps.
When the deer saw the need to ward off competitors, they got aggressive, battling their foes, which include other deer, by standing on their rear legs and waving their front hooves menacingly . But as to the fox, all the deer needed to do was to look at the fox, move a few feet toward it and that was enough for the fox to move away. The fox seemed to have little fear of the does, but the buck with those antlers, well that was something to avoid.
Then we placed the fruit scraps in the same pan as the sweet feed. The deer dominated this situation, but the fox took every opportunity to quickly run to the pan and grab a piece of fruit should the deer be looking the other way. The fox had to be quick and decisive to pull this off.
The deer were constantly concerned about their security (that's good, we should keep it that way). For example, when the squirrel would jump from the tree branch to the bird feeder, shaking the limb wildly, the deer would jump away in alarm. Not the fox, the fox always seemed as if it had its security under control. Interestingly, the squirrel was never observed on the ground at the same time the fox was around. That would indicate that the fox would attack the squirrel if it was caught out of the tree. That's somewhat surprising to us as the squirrel can get nasty when handled and it can use those front teeth to do battle. But, we have learned that the fox and wild cats kill squirrels quickly by taking them in their mouth and shaking them rapidly, thus breaking their neck.
The deer never stopped being wary, but the fox dropped into a casual mode after eating, sometimes sitting on the sidewalk like a dog would sit, looking around and doing some necessary scratching. They are a beautiful animal.
The bird feeder is two sided, so if the squirrel was on one side, the cardinals were on the other side, not enjoying each others company, but being tolerant of one another. The mockingbird would not act the same way, as it would incessantly harass the squirrel to the point where it would leave. The cardinals are more complacent.
When finished eating, the deer would drink from the birdbath (it has to be refilled daily) and the fox would jump up on the rim and takes its fill of water before ambling off.
After a few weeks of this all the participants show up minutes after the food is put out. They must all be parked up in the woods a few yards away waiting for noise I must make in setting up the days experiment.
One side observation is that none of these wild animals will eat man-made breakfast cereal---corn based, oat based, no matter, they will not eat it. They sniff it and walk away. Do they sense something we don't sense? At cereal's $5 per pound cost, perhaps we would be better off eating sweet feed at 20 cents per pound.
When night arrives, the cleanup crew appears. The cleanup crew is always one or more raccoons, but they must be disappointed because all that is left is the odor of what was there earlier--except for the cereal which they don't like any more than all the others.
We ended the experiment by tapering off the food and then stopping it since we do not want to domesticate these fine wild animals.
