Wild Things columnist Eric Brown discovers foxes may once have been man's best friend and warns anyone visiting Dulwich to take an umbrella in another column of wildlife oddbits.

We all know dogs are man's best friend. It has been that way forever. Or has it? Remains unearthed in Argentina dated from 450AD suggest foxes may once have played the role and walked alongside humans. Skeletons of 18 adults and six children were unearthed in Patagonia beside bones from several foxes. This fox species Dusicyon avuus was approximately the size of a German shepherd dog but is now extinct. Researchers, including some from the University of Oxford, conclude the burials suggest foxes were valuable companions to hunter gatherers until dogs were introduced. Somehow I find it difficult to picture a fox on a lead or jumping on a human lap.

Wild Things: Pocket a floral delight

Beware if you use one of those new-fangled robot mower things. They can be lethal to wildlife if you wander off while the mower performs. Particularly vulnerable are hedgehogs, fledgling birds and worms. Experts from Oxford University are carrying out tests to save hedgehogs and other wildlife. They hope the results will convince robot mower manufacturers to refine designs adding sensors which retract on contact.

Recent data indicates the UK worm population has fallen by a third over 25 years with huge implications for soil quality as well as birds and small mammals who rely on them for food.

Wild Things: Glad to see the return of swifts

An eradication programme has American mink on the run. This destructive and invasive species, farmed for their fur, ran amok in the UK countryside after escaping or being released by activists. But their targets like water voles, amphibians, fish and birds can breathe a little easier as a four-year project has eradicated mink from east Anglia. The Waterlife Recovery Trust now plans to expand its trapping programme. This is badly needed at Bough Beech Reservoir, a Kent Wildlife Trust reserve near Ide Hill, where a mink recently swam to a raft and decimated the breeding common terns there.

Meanwhile crows are on the warpath in south London. Residents have been advised to carry umbrellas for protection after a series of crow attacks in Dulwich. A schoolgirl was left bleeding after one attack and a mother with a pram injured in another. Two crows were filmed chasing a cyclist in the same area. The crows were probably protecting young.

Slugs are being targeted by gardeners after the warm, wet spring led to an explosion in numbers. The Royal Horticultural Society advises building log piles to entice slugs away from plants.

Supporters of threatened Crossness Nature Reserve can join the Restore Nature Now march in London this weekend. Meet at Abbey Wood Station 11.20am on Saturday, June 22 to travel to Bond St from where it is a 10-minute walk to the march starting point at Marble Arch.

For the latest on attempts to safeguard Crossness Nature Reserve against development and fundraising news see the website: Save Crossness Nature Reserve.