Murderous wildlife

This is not my usual kind of post, but I just had to record this.

I was disturbed late last night (OK, I hadn't actually gone to sleep) by an unbelievably blood-curdling screech from outside. I was a little surprised as we live high-up on the 14th floor, and now that the nights are getting cold we have the windows closed, so for a noise from outside to be that audible it has to be pretty loud. It happened again, and continued, so I got up and looked out of the window. For the next ten minutes or so there was a hideous throaty-skwaky-screechy sound so loud that it echoed around the buildings. I presumed that it was a fox (although there have not been so many around here this year) mauling a goose or some other fowl, although the noise was so loud that it may have been another fox, as I can't really imagine any kind of bird making that sound. Certainly a fox was involved, as I saw it running across the road shortly after the death-throe sounds finally subsided. Whatever it was, the victim certainly died in excruciating agony. Nature - red in tooth and claw, in the middle of Deptford!

Obviously not satisfied with its slaughter for the night, the fox then went on to terrorise the local human population. It stalked around making aggressive screech-barking sounds for the next 20 minutes. I observed one man getting out of his car, who upon hearing the noise ran very quickly to the entrance to the block of flats and waited nervously to be let in - looking over his shoulder all the time. Not long after, a group of three lads (obviously coming back from a club) were walking down the the road when they heard the screech-barking. I heard one of them shouting "fuck! what was that?!". They looked around at each other for a second, and then they legged it down the road for a hundred yards or so before looking back. It was quite funny to watch. I imagine that these guys had no idea what it was that they were running away from, but they were certainly scared.

I am sure that those lads will get over the experience, but it is fascinating to realise that predatory animal behaviour can still have this kind of effect on humans, even in the middle of London.

(picture from the Tooth & Claw website)