Sparkfox.

Wait, what?

I live in harmony near lots of wild things, including some foxes. They stay on the outside of my house and I stay on the inside. It's not "perfect" but it works pretty well.

I ain't saying this in the hypothetical, here's the flowing spring wetlands that is my front yard. https://ibb.co/7dmnC4x5

Not everything is perfect. I am not "kill nothing." But I try very hard to live well with nature by trying to understand it.

And its good for all of us.

Foxes live happily in urban areas all over Britain. The problem here is the Google employees.

I used to have a fox regularly lounging in my gazebo right outside my office window in South London. He didn't care about me unless I opened the door (at which point he would wander off), and didn't bother me at all. It was not a problem beyond a bit of fur on one of the pillows that he liked to sleep on.

London foxes are used to people.

Foxes aren't particularly dangerous to humans (at least in countries where rabies has been eradicated, like the UK); far less so than, say, dogs.

When I'm walking home very late at night (urban area) I'll often pass one or two. They're just... there.

Another possible interpretation is that the grounds are laid out such that rainfall doesn't cause the roof's soil to erode and wash off.

(This is without any positive or negative value judgement, just an observation that we don't have to reach for "it needs to look pretty" to explain why having foxes on the roof isn't ideal.)

> Right, how the heck did the foxes get on the ROOF in the first place?!

Just like with all Google SW: through RCE. /s

Foxes, pigeons, rats etc are generally described as vermin yet they perform vital ecological functions and are somehow maligned for performing it.

They are scavengers (int al). They help keep the place cleaner in return for a small amount of crap and some extra disease vectors.

What I'd really like to hear is that a bunch of clever kids at Google realise that a city has an ecology all of its own and that they need to fit into it and not the other way around. If they have managed to attract foxes then make the best of it.

I wonder if there are there any Plane trees on it?

> can understand that when a company spends an exorbitant amount of money on a building with a roof garden and the costs of ongoing maintenance they are not happy it is being dug up

The point of the roof garden is to create a delightful space. Just give the foxes their rabies shots and count your lucky stars that you got such an attraction.

Never had a particularly emotive thought under fox urine exposure, but the stuff is quite pungent.

We get quite a few foxes in our garden, and they leave their mess and their urine does absolutely stink.