23-May Badgers, Foxes & Phantom Hares: London’s Wild Young

Red deer give birth to a single calf, which is unable to stand for a week. The hind leaves it well camouflaged, returning to let it suckle only two or three times a day. Once the calf is able to follow its mother, this increases to once an hour.

Fallow deer also have their young in May or June. Their young can run in just a few hours. Roe deer are still pregnant, as are hedgehogs, water voles and dormice. Most other mammals spend May breeding or building nests. Adult moles can sometimes be seen running across the surface at this time of year. It is believed rather than looking for females they may be looking for water. They are light sleepers, often sleeping in an upright position. By the end of the month they may have between two and seven independent young, all with open eyes, although they can only see one or two centimetres in front of them. In the not too distant past, mole feet were worn like rabbit paws as a charm against rheumatism.

The only other young likely to be seen this month are rabbits and squirrels. Inexperienced young rabbits graze freely, inches away from roads even in daylight. When cars or humans appear, they look dazed. Young squirrels look noticeably smaller than their parents and chase each other, just as their parents do. They tend to be seen early and late in the day.

Leverets are now leaving their dams and can be seen feeding alone or sometimes in small groups. They become attached to their forms, some of which they use in good weather and others when the weather is bad. They regularly return to the same one, leading to the old belief they returned to their form to die. Adult hares grind their teeth and it was thought they chewed the cud. Most mice and shrews are now breeding rapidly. Water shrews give birth to between five and eight young with the young sometimes seen playing around the entrance of their burrows. If disturbed, shrews have the habit of standing their ground, shivering and waving their long, pointed noses. With their neurotic behaviour it was believed they died of shock in thunderstorms. Some of their high-pitched squeals are above human hearing. If caught by predators, shrews feign death and consequently are often left untouched. Mice, on the other hand, are a favourite food for many predators, especially weasels.

Like stoats, weasels also give birth this month and will quickly go on to hunt in family groups. They are known to climb trees and swim, and eat one third of their own weight each day. Stoats, which are now confined to London’s green belt, bring food back to the nest, perhaps as much as four times their weight. They will even roll eggs with their chin. The young are blind at birth, but start to follow their mother after nine days. They will happily live and play with rabbits, but eat them when they feel hungry.