PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE PLEASE DO NOT LITTER

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1 SIONNACH FOX Vulpes vulpes FOX SIONNACH Vulpes vulpes represent the distribution of Foxes throughout Ireland. The Fox has been with us for a long, long time. Throughout the years, he has been hunted by man, but, because he is an intelligent animal, he has been able to survive all the trapping, hunting and shooting. The fox is still very common all over this country. You may not have seen these handsome animals because they usually spend the daylight hours sleeping, only coming out to hunt when it gets dark. The fox has a thick red-brown coat with white underparts and a long white-tipped tail or brush. He and the female fox (a vixen) live in an earth or underground burrow. Sometimes they occupy a badger s sett or a rabbit s burrow. The badger s neat home is soon turned into a bit of a mess by the untidy fox family! In April, three to six cubs are born. Foxes are very good parents. Unlike some other wild animals, the dog-fox is an excellent father. He provides food for the vixen and her cubs and helps his mate to rear the family. The cubs begin to leave home in the late summer. They soon go their own separate ways, for foxes are solitary animals and prefer to be on their own. Foxes do a very important job of controlling the numbers of pests like rats and mice.

2 IORA RUA RED SQUIRREL Sciurus vulgaris RED SQUIRREL IORA RUA Sciurus vulgaris represent the distribution of Red Squirrels throughout Ireland. by 100 kilometres. Everyone loves the Red Squirrel because of the colour of its coat and beautiful big tail. These pretty little creatures like to live in coniferous (or cone-bearing) woodlands. Squirrels are wonderful acrobats, scampering up and down the tree and jumping from branch to branch. The male squirrel builds a big nest or drey in the tree and it is a cosy home for his family. The drey is made of twigs, leaves, mosses and bark. Squirrels do not hibernate in the winter but they avoid the cold and wet weather. They like a good sleep but they wake up if the weather improves. A squirrel eats nuts, acorns, pine seeds, fungi and berries. During the autumn, this food is stored away for winter use, carefully hidden in holes or hollows. But the forgetful creatures often can t remember where they put the hidden food! There are also a large number of Grey Squirrels in this country. They were originally brought over here from North America. Grey squirrels are bigger than our native red squirrels and can eat more types of food and so are replacing reds in many areas.

3 DOBHARCHÚ OTTER Lutra lutra OTTER DOBHARCHÚ represent the distribution of Otters throughout Ireland. Not very many people have seen an otter. This is a pity, for it is one of our most graceful and attractive animals. Looking like an overgrown stoat, the otter has a long body and tail and short legs. It is a semi-aquatic creature, equally at home on land or in the water. The otter is a wonderful swimmer with a body perfectly suited to underwater activity. Its coat is waterproof and with webbed toes and a long tail for a rudder, it can swim effortlessly in search of prey, such as coarse fish, eels and frogs, etc. Large lungs enable it to take a deep breath which keeps it going under the water for three minutes or more. Out of the water, an otter will hunt for rabbits, mice, voles and birds. Otters live near water, beside lakes, rivers and streams. They make a home called a holt in a bank with the entrance under the water or it may be in an old rotten tree-stump. The mother otter has a litter of one to three whelps which are born blind. the babies remain in the holt for about eight weeks after birth and both parents hunt to feed them. After this period, the whelps are taught to swim. The strange thing is that they are not too keen to take to the water. They have to be coaxed to follow the mother otter across shallow water. Sometimes the babies have to pushed down the river bank. Once in the water, they soon become expert at catching their own food. Otters are very playful and even when they are fully grown, they love to slide down muddy banks into the water. Otters are a protected animal but are often harmed by water pollution, so make sure to never pollute water.

4 LUCH FHÉIR FIELD MOUSE Apodemus sylvaticus FIELD MOUSE LUCH FHÉIR Apodemus sylvaticus Field Mice throughout Ireland. The Field Mouse is one of our prettiest little animals. It has a coat of brown and white fur with an orange spot on the chest. This tiny, timid creature has a long tail, large oval ears and huge shortsighted eyes. In spite of its name, it can also be found in hedgerows, scrub, woods and even sanddunes. Field Mice sleep during the day and move around at night. They are very active animals, running, hopping and climbing, always on the look-out for seeds, berries, nuts and insects. They like to save food and sometimes they scramble up a tree to use an old bird s nest as a food store. The Field Mouse makes a burrow about three feet below the surface. This burrow has three entrances. The breeding nest is made of shredded grass and is found at the end of the burrow. The mother Field Mouse produces a litter of four to eight babies and she may have three or more litters in one year. The young are born blind and they open their eyes in about a fortnight. They remain in the family burrow even when they are fully-grown, sharing it with brothers and sisters and other relatives. Field Mice have good reason to be nervous for they have many enemies such as cats, dogs, stoats, foxes and crows. Field Mice do not hibernate although they are less active in the winter. They have the food which they stored in burrows or holes during Autumn.

5 EASÓG STOAT Mustela erminea STOAT EASÓG Mustela erminea represent the distribution of Stoats throughout Ireland. The Irish stoat is an elegant little animal with a long slender body and neck, short legs and a black-tipped tail. Many people call it a weasel but there are not weasels in Ireland. Its coat is reddish-brown above with white or yellowish underparts. Stoats live in woods, high moorland, mountains and open country where there are walls, hedges and ditches. Like other furry animals, stoats spend a lot of daylight hours sleeping, emerging at night to hunt. However, they can sometimes be seen frolicking in the sunshine, jumping dancing, turning somersaults and wriggling like a snake. Although stoats are so playful, they are very skilled and fierce killers! They will attack rats, mice, birds, leverets and animals such as rabbits which are much bigger than themselves. When confronted by a stoat, a rabbit is often so terrified that it becomes paralysed with fear and may even die of fright! Because they destroy huge numbers of rodents in this way, stoats are much more beneficial than harmful. The stoat itself has enemies such as owls, foxes, cats, dogs and people who tend poultry and game. Stoats breed once a year, mother stoat producing a litter in March/April. The stoat nursery may be a hold in a bank, a hollow tree trunk, a rock crevice or a rabbit s burrow. There may be up to ten babies in a litter, blind for the first nine days. They develop very quickly and, in no time at all, they can follow their mother when she goes hunting. Stoats are very inquisitive animals and, if anything catches their attention, they will stand upright folding their paws over their chests.

6 GRÁINNEOG HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus HEDGEHOG GRÁINNEOG Erinaceus europaeus Hedgehogs throughout Ireland. The hedgehog is unlike any of our other small animals. Instead of being soft and furry, its head and body are covered with hard pointed prickles which help to protect it from other animals which might want to eat it. During the daylight hours, the hedgehog lies curled up asleep in a bed of leaves, grass and moss. The prickly little creature usually emerges when the sun goes down, grunting and sniffing, hunting for worms, snails, slugs, beetles and other insects. The hedgehog s sight may be poor but its hearing and sense of smell are very sensitive. The tread of paws on the soil alerts it of possible danger and it will roll up into a ball to protect itself from attack. Hedgehogs are good climbers and good swimmers, too. When hedgehogs are born, four or five to each litter, they are blind. Their short white spines soon become strong and sharp. The family lives under bushes, in hollows or under tree roots. During autumn, hedgehogs eat as much as possible to get fat for the winter. As the weather gets colder, the hedgehog s food becomes scarce and the animal becomes drowsy and slow-moving. It makes a bed, sometimes in a rabbit hole, and curls up for a long winter s sleep. A mild spell of weather sets in, the hedgehog goes into a deep sleep, waking up in March thin and hungry. It begins to hunt for food at once in the spring sunshine. Hedgehogs do an important job of controlling the number of slugs and snails in our fields and gardens.

7 COINÍN RABBIT Oryctolagus cuniculus RABBIT COINÍN Oryctolagus cuniculus Rabbits throughout Ireland. As can be seen on the map, rabbits are widespread throughout this country. They live in large colonies or warrens and spend most of the time underground in tunnels called burrows, coming out at dawn and dusk to eat and exercise. They make their burrows among grasslands, woods, sand-dunes and cultivated fields. Because they eat only vegetable matter, rabbits can do great damage to agricultural crops with their chisel-like teeth or incisors. A rabbit is a timid animal and is always looking out for warnings of danger. Its eyes are very wide apart and it can see all around without turning its head. With such good eyesight, a keen sense of smell and sensitive long ears, a rabbit soon detects enemies such as stoats, foxes, badgers dogs and man! Male rabbits are called bucks and females are called does. A doe usually has eight or more babies between January and June. Before the litter is born, she digs a hole in the ground and makes a cosy nest of leaves and ferns, lining it with fur plucked from her own chest. After the birth, the doe blocks the entrance to the breeding hole. The young rabbits are born naked, blind and helpless, but very soon fur appears on their pink bodies and their big bright eyes open. After a couple of weeks, they are able to run around and nibble the grass. It is believed that rabbits were introduced into Ireland by the Normans in the thirteenth century. Although they are common now, rabbits are not as numerous as they were in the 1950 s. At that time, a terrible disease called myxamatosis struck and hundreds of thousands of rabbits died.

8 RóN GLAS GREY SEAL Halichoerus grypus * GREY SEAL RÓN GLAS Halichoerus grypus Grey Seals throughout Ireland. There are two species of seals to be found around the coasts of Ireland, the Grey Seal and the Common Seal. A seal is a fish-eating mammal whose body is perfectly adapted for life in the water. It has a pair of webbed flippers which it uses as a fish uses its tail. A male Grey Seal (bull) can measure from 210cm to 270cm. The female (cow) is smaller. A seal s body is protected by a layer of fat called blubber which is covered by a coat of close fur. When swimming underwater, a seal has a valve which it can close to keep the water out of its nostrils. In the water, the seal is a graceful swimmer but ashore its movements are awkward and clumsy. During the breeding season, Grey Seals gather in large colonies on rocky coasts where there are cliffs and caves. The bull seal regards the females as his own property and he will fight any young bull foolish enough to interfere. Baby seals (pups) are born in September and October. With their coats of woolly white hair and big brown eyes, seal pups look like big puppy dogs. At three weeks, the pup sheds its first coat and becomes darker. After about five or six weeks it enters the sea. The mother seals play with their babies in the water and they guard them fiercely against any intruder. Female seals have a strange singing hoot and when they gather in large numbers ashore they make a loud wailing chorus which can be heard a long distance away.

9 FIA RUA RED DEER Cervus elaphus RED DEER FIA RUA Cervus elaphus Red Deer throughout Ireland. The Red Deer is our biggest wild animal. The male deer is called a stag. He has large antlers which begin to grow in April of his second year and are fully grown by August or September. The female deer is called a hind. She does not have antlers. Stags and hinds usually keep apart in separate groups, but when the mating season begins in October/November, a stag leaves his group and joins the hinds. At this time, he will gather as many hinds as he can and will fight any other stag which tries to take over the herd. Stags roar and bellow and try to lord it over the females but it is the hinds which are the real leaders of the herds. Calves are born in June. They are brown with white spots. A calf will stay with its mother for about a year. Red Deer herds are often large and may be seen on mountains and moorlands. They used to live close to forests but, with the destruction by people of most of our trees, Red Deer have retreated to open country. These deer are very cautious animals. They have exceptional sight and hearing with a wonderful sense of smell which warns them of danger. Herds search for food and water at dusk. They eat grass, heather and young tree shoots and if there are too many deer they do a lot of damage to woodlands by eating the seedling and bark of trees. Red Deer were hunted almost to extinction in the past but are a protected species in this country now.

10 BROC BADGER Meles meles BADGER BROC Meles meles Badgers throughout Ireland. The badger is a thick-set animal with a coarse grey coat and a handsome white, black striped head. With its powerful limbs and bear-like claws, the badger is a great digger. Its home consists of tunnels which lead underground to a main living chamber and smaller sleeping quarters. These tunnels are called setts and they have large entrance holes. Setts are often dug in woodland on sloping ground and can be hundreds of years old. Badgers are tidy housekeepers and they make their homes comfortable with grass, straw, bracken and leaf mould. Cubs are born in early spring and they are blind at birth. The female (the sow) is a very caring mother who keeps her babies clean and free from ticks. The male (the boar) has to live in a separate chamber before the cubs are born and he cannot visit the babies until the sow gives him permission! When the cubs are ready to come out of the sett, they do not hunt with their parents. They play noisily around the entrance, running about and digging holes. The adult badgers are night creatures and when dusk comes, they emerge cautiously after sniffing and listening to make sure it is safe to start the search for food. A badger has a large appetite and will eat almost anything! Young rabbits, rats, mice and frogs are caught and eaten. Earthworms, beetles, acorns and even bees and wasps nests are also eaten sometimes. Be careful not to throw litter in the countryside where our wonderful wildlife lives!