While most people can appreciate the benefits of the natural world, there is often a sense of confusion at how to manage wildlife in urban areas.

One such example is the presence of foxes.

Some people feel bad for the animals in cities, and may even begin to feed them.

However, biologist and environmentalist Éanna Ní Lamhna told The Anton Savage Show that this can lead to the animals overpopulating certain areas.

“You don’t feed the fox, that’s interfering with it,” she said.

“The reason why you don’t have heaps and heaps and heaps of anything is because they want loads of food, this kind of thing.

“I mean, if every bird, if every everything that was born and lived, I mean, we’d be overcome with robins – we'd be overcome with anything.

“So, you should leave them to their own devices.”

A Red Fox in the Cooley Mountains in Ireland. Image: Enda Flynn / Alamy

Ms Ní Lamhna also recommended people not to feed animals they might see as harmless, such as hedgehogs.

“Hedgehogs do not and cannot eat cow's milk, they cannot eat bread – if you must feed the hedgehogs, you must use dog food,” she said.

“Something meaty, something that would be in a tin, something of that order – they're carnivores.

“They live on slugs and snails and earwigs and things like this, they do not eat bread and milk, no matter what Enid Blyton said.”

According to Ms Ní Lamhna, another creature people should steer clear of feeding are the deer in the Phoenix Park.

Main image: Éanna Ní Lamhna in the Newstalk studio