April, 2005 - Nr. 4
A fox’s home is his Palace
TWIG - With his bushy orange tail, a fox has trotted his way into the hearts of Berliners and visitors to the German capital alike by acting more like a domestic pet than a wild animal during frequent forays onto the city’s famous Alexanderplatz square.
For months, city officials and curious observers assumed that the fox retired to greener pastures during the day to sleep off his late-night city adventures. But it’s actually Berlin’s campy Palace of the Republic where the fox makes his home.
The boxy communist-era building, revived briefly last summer for a successful stint as party venue and event location, is scheduled to be demolished later this summer to make way for the reconstructed Berlin City Palace. But until then, the fox will likely continue to lurk around its periphery, an area he is said to know quite well.
Foxes have been known to wander city streets foraging for food, according to the English fox expert Stephen Harris. But most prefer the green suburbs to the asphalt jungle that pervades eastern Berlin.
Berlin’s fox is of course not the only animal in recent year’s to covertly challenge the Berlin Bear for official city mascot. Since 1986, a pair of falcons has been nesting in the highest tower of the city’s Rotes Rathaus mayor’s office, where they have been studied extensively by ornithologists. Mostly, they feed off of the city’s abundant supply of street pigeons.
But the falcons generally keep to themselves, while the fox
has been known to venture close to people, even taking up the city pleasure
of strolling past outdoor cafés during good weather.
