Mi sa tanto di barzelletta

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Una Volpe è stata uccisa dai Polli

Sto andando al party dell'anno nuovo

di Irina Moiseyeva

Affidandoci alla letteratura e alla biologia, possiamo essere certi che la volpe comune o volpe rossa (Vulpes vulpes), diffusa in tutta la regione paleartica e in una parte dell'Asia meridionale, non ha mai avuto paura del gallo. Ma adesso, in base a ciò che è accaduto nella contea inglese dell'Essex all'inizio di marzo 2010, questo Canide carnivoro dovrebbe cominciare a stare all'erta, in quanto i ruoli si sarebbero invertiti: pare che dei polli abbiano ucciso la loro proverbiale nemica. La veridicità della notizia pare assurda non solo a me, tant'è che la colloco fra le barzellette, in quanto nulla vieta che anche a questa volpe possa essere accaduto ciò che giornalmente accade a una miriade di esseri umani: una morte improvvisa. Una morte improvvisa nota anche ai miei polli, forse da elettrosmog. Plinio in Naturalis historia XXVIII,265 proponeva due talismani contro la volpe che varrebbe la pena verificare: Non vengono assaliti dalle volpi quei polli che avranno mangiato il fegato essiccato di questo animale, oppure se i galli avranno montato le galline dopo essersi messi al collo un pezzetto di pelle di tale animale.

Galline alla riscossa a Basildon Essex UK
Vendetta delle galline sulla volpe
Ucciso a colpi di becco il nemico che insidiava il pollaio
notizia del 04/03/2010

Siamo in Inghilterra, a Basildon, città di circa 100.000 abitanti nella contea dell'Essex meridionale. Michelle Cordell ci ha spiegato di aver trovato una volpe morta vicino al pollaio. Fin qui niente di strano se non fosse che, stando alla signora, a uccidere la volpe sarebbero stati proprio il gallo e le galline. "Penso che quando hanno visto la volpe avvicinarsi l'abbiano attaccata e uccisa" spiega Michelle. La prova che le cose siano andate veramente così non c'è, ma la storia ha già fatto il giro dell'Inghilterra. Potrebbe essere che la volpe si sia ferita a morte nel tentativo di entrare nel pollaio (magari con i ferri acuminati della ringhiera) e solo successivamente i pennuti abbiano infierito sul cadavere. Fatto sta che il dubbio rimane.

http://www.romagnanoi.it

Murder most fowl
Three hens and cockerel named Dude
peck fox to death after it breaks into coop.
by Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 10:24 AM on 03rd March 2010

Being chickens, they probably didn't put too much thought into it. But somehow a flock of four birds managed to kill a fox that had slunk into their pen hoping to gobble them up. Their owner Michelle Cordell, 43, had the shock of her life when she went to collect the eggs on the weekend and instead found a heavily pecked pile of fur lying dead in the corner.

Dude the cockerel was the ringleader
who turned the tables on a sly fox who broke into his coop

She said: 'I was shocked. When I opened up the door, the chickens came running out, happy as anything. I went inside and the fox was laying there. I've never heard of anything like this before. It's like revenge of the chickens.'

The family, of Basildon, Essex, have in the past lost a hen and a cockerel to foxes, so are well aware of the danger the animals pose. And so, it seems, are their chickens.

The bloody aftermath
after the chickens pecked the fox to death

This time, the marauder was a relatively young fox - and no match for the new cockerel Dude and his hens Izzy, Pongo and Pecky. Miss Cordell has no doubt it is Dude who was the ringleader in the murder. She said she had shut the sliding door of the coop when she put the chickens to bed on Friday night, but the fox must have nosed his way under. When she went out on Saturday morning, the door was still shut. The little table in the corner of the coop, which the chickens perch on, had been kicked over and was lying next to the fox's head.

The dead fox was knocked out by a table
before being pecked to death

It appeared to have fallen on him and knocked him out, leaving him an easy target for the beaks of the chickens. Miss Cordell said she thinks they finished off the young fox with pecking as 'it had little blood marks on its legs. It had not been dead long'. The table falling down could have been part of an elaborate plot hatched by the brood - but was more likely the lucky result of frantic squawking, flapping and running about. Miss Cordell, who lives with partner Gary Howell, 45, and daughters Maddi, eight, and Ruby 13, began keeping chickens last summer because Maddi begged her to.

Michelle Cordell with girls Ruby, 13, Maddi, 8,
and dude the fox killing rooster

They lost their first two before Christmas, and were left with just Dude and Izzy, both a speckled variety. Pongo and Pecky, both Rhode Island Reds, joined them a month ago. 'The fox was not a cub but it was only a young one and Dude and Izzy are big birds,' she said. 'It looks like the fox bit off more than he could chew this time. I reared Dude from a tiny little chick and he has become very protective of the others. He thinks he is human and chases our dogs around the garden, pecking them. Now he is a murderer.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk