When the Chinese province of Xinjiang developed a problem with rats, they were a bit hamstrung as to how to take care of them. The province, in remote Western China, is about 5.5 million acres of grasslands and prairies, so setting a whole lot of traps isn’t exactly a good solution to the problem. So, officials decided to tackle the rat problem in a green way by buying and releasing an army of silver foxes bought from fur farms.
“Foxes are excellent natural predators of the rodent. One fox can catch about 20 rats per day. There has been a decline in the rat population in several counties where the measure has been adopted,” says official Ni Yifei of the program. The province started with 20 foxes in 2004 and built their numbers up to 287 in the intervening years before releasing them into the wild to help combat the rat population. “The silver fox was chosen to be the rat fighter for its distinctive ability to run, hunt and live under the harsh living conditions on the prairie,” Yifei added.
Other provinces are using ducks, chickens, wolves, and even eagles to combat their rat problem, but I think the fox is the natural winner of this. They’re just able to survive anywhere, from the inner city subway system to the suburban parking lot. You just can’t keep a fantastic fox down.
Tags: pest control, rat control, Xinjiang, China, fur farm foxes, farm-raised foxes used to kill rats, Ni Yifei, Chinese province buys foxes to hunt rats, unusual rat control problems, natural exterminators, unusual animals