Is The Fight To Protect and Conserve Wildlife Lost? It Seems So

  On the British Fox and Wild Canid Study blog on 7th January, 2024 I posted this:

How Many Animals Killed On UK Roads Each Year -it should keep you awake at night

National Road Death Survey The Mammal Society 2001

There have been warnings that common mammal species such as hedgehogs, badgers and hares might be declining and face local extinction in certain parts of Europe primarily due to road casualties. In Britain annual road casualties are estimated to account for 100,000 foxes, 100,000 hedgehogs, 50,000 badgers and 30,000-50,000 deer. There is also concern regarding particular bird of prey species such as the barn owl, which is dramatically over-represented in the total number of wildlife road casualties compared with other bird of prey species. For these reasons, The Mammal Society, in collaboration with the Hawk and Owl Trust, undertook a nationwide survey to identify trends in road and habitat characteristics associated with mammal and bird of prey wildlife road casualties.

For one year, in 2000/2001, 281 volunteers from across Britain recorded wild mammal and bird of prey casualties on all road categories except designated trunk roads and motorways, which were excluded on the grounds of safety. A number of habitat and road characteristic variables were recorded at each casualty location including the speed limit, proximity to a bend, presence or absence of a connecting wildlife corridor (e.g. a stream, railway line or hedgerow), and the adjacent land use, verge habitats and highway boundary features Regional differences in casualty rates were also investigated. Volunteers were also requested to record road and habitat data at non- casualty locations along their route so that characteristics occurring disproportionately more frequently at casualty locations than at non-casualty locations could be identified.

Volunteers recorded 5675 mammal casualties and 142 bird of prey casualties. Figures 1 and 2 show the principal mammal and bird of prey road casualty species as proportions of the total number of casualties. The hedgehog was the most numerous mammal casualty recorded (29% of mammal casualties), followed by badger (25%) and fox (19%). The most numerous bird of prey road casualty recorded was the tawny owl (25% of casualties), followed by kestrel (19%) and then barn owl (16%). Casualties as a proportion of British pre-breeding population size were highest for the badger, fox and barn owl.

Habitat and road features influencing the presence/absence of wildlife road casualties are shown in Table 1. The casualty locations of a number of mammal species, including fox, badger and muntjac, and also the barn owl and kestrel were associated with adjacent linear habitat features that connect with road verges and thus funnel wildlife toward traffic. High traffic speed increased the likelihood of many mammal species, including fox, badger and roe deer, and also the tawny owl, falling victim to vehicles as it reduces the time available for drivers and animals to react to danger. Adjacent land use and region were important factors influencing wildlife road casualty locations and appeared to reflect foraging activity and population density. For example, roe deer and tawny owl road casualties were associated with adjacent woodland habitat and badger casualties were disproportionately high in the south-west of England.

Due to the impact of road casualties it has been suggested that barn owls are unable to sustain viable breeding populations in close proximity to trunk roads and motorways and that road casualties may even be responsible for suppressing the populations of some of our common mammal species on a local scale. There are also a significant number of human fatalities and a considerable economic cost associated with collisions between vehicles and wildlife. There is therefore, a conservation and economic argument for substantial investment in wildlife accident prevention. This study has highlighted typical casualty hotspot locations where such mitigation measures should be implemented.

We are extremely grateful for the tremendous effort of all the volunteers who participated in the survey, all of whom will be sent a summary report in the near future.

By Lincoln Garland

Figure 1. Mammal road casualty proportions

 

 

 Figure 2. Bird of prey road casualty proportions

 

 The 4% between unknown and little owl pertains to sparrowhawks

Table 1. Habitat and road features influencing the presence/absence of wildlife road casualties

 

	Adjacent verge habitat	Adjacent land use	Adjacent highway boundary	Connecting Wildlife corridor	Road speed limit	Proximity to a road bend	Region
Mammals	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Hedgehog	ns	√ (urban)	√ (ditch)	ns	ns	ns	ns
Hare	ns	√ (arable)	√ (ditch)	ns	ns	√ (no bend)	√ (north England)
Grey squirrel	√ (wooded)	√ (urban and woodland)	ns	ns	ns	ns	√ (south-east)
Rat	ns	√ (urban)	ns	ns	ns	√ (on bend)	ns
Fox	ns	ns	ns	√	√	ns	ns
Stoat	ns	ns	√ (ditch)	√	√	ns	ns
Weasel	ns	ns	ns	√	ns	ns	ns
Polecat/ferret	ns	√ (pasture)	ns	√	ns	ns	ns
Mink	ns	ns	ns	√	ns	ns	ns
Badger	ns	√ (pasture)	√ (ditch & hedge)	√	√	ns	√ (south-west)
Roe deer	ns	√ (woodland)	√ (ditch)	ns	√	ns	ns
Muntjac	√ (wooded)	ns	√ (ditch and treeline)	√	√	ns	ns
Birds of prey	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Kestrel	ns	√ (arable)	ns	√	ns	ns	ns
Barn owl	ns	√ (arable)	√ (no hedge)	√	ns	ns	ns
Tawny owl	ns	√ (woodland)	ns	ns	√	ns	ns

ns – non-significant

√ - significant

Here we have to remember that these are just reports gathered through volunteers and so fox 19% and badger 25% seems to be a little off when the Society states that an estimated 100,000 foxes and 50,000badgers are killed each year on UK roads. In fact, animals killed on roads or being hit by cars are rarely reported as the attitude exists that "animals should not be on the road" and "what's the point of reporting a dead animal?" -something I hear all too often. 

For a country calling itself a "nation of animal lovers" this is literally widespread slaughter on an industrial scale when put alongside hundreds of mammals (and birds) killed each week for shooters 'sport' and the 'legal; killing of 250,000 badgers to stop supposed bovine TB spread. 

With road casualties we know that otters, foxes, badgers and deer are killed daily and in many cases along certain and very specific stretches of road. Yet, there is, unlike most wildlife conscious countries, no use or building of wildlife over or underpasses to stop the casualties. Why not? It might cause a few delays in journeys during building? That is far more preferable than having to record more and more wildlife deaths especially of protected species such as otters and badgers.

Just from the 2023 Bristol Fox and Badger Death Registers we can highlight the areas/roads where most deaths occur and when it comes to otters we know the main road where deaths happen. The UKs local and national 'policies' on environment and conservation are a joke at best and a smoke screen/lie at worse.

Firstly, it might be worth the Home Office examining the widespread use of firearms for 'sport' because on most of the shooters' online pages they brag about the wildlife (and other animals) they have killed and post photographs of themselves with their 'trophies' and yet, the law states (in the case of foxes for instance) that they may be "controlled" if a threat top livestock. So the killing of "hundreds" according to 'sportsmen' of foxes every month is illegal -what livestock are foxes able to take down (and ignore the false lamb claim) especially on the outskirts of towns and cities where foxes mainly feed on rodents and wild rabbits?

Why are fox numbers tumbling i9n the UK? Well, traffic for one and the other is the killing of breeding pairs of foxes as well as cubs.  The number of vixens we record being killed by cars alone shows that there are simply not enough to continue breeding a strong and healthy population and so many are suffering from illnesses and not recovering -the 100,000 per year is looking a tad slim compared to the probable actual number of fox deaths each year in total.

And, yes, I am aware that some shooters include off duty police officers so perhaps the blind eye of the law is blind for a reason?

We need to tackle decline in wildlife while we still can and when you also consider that Mammal Society report was from 2001 and that traffic has increased greatly since then it becomes something that should keep people concerned with wildlife and conservation up at night. It does me.

We need to construct wildlife underpasses and regulate shooting for 'sport'.  We also need to legally come down hard on estates and those who allow the killing of protected and reintroduced birds of prey etc. That or just watch as wildlife disappear.

Then, on the 30th February 2025 I posted this:

How Much Wildlife Can One City Kill And Not Care About?

 I have just completed a 59pp document that combines the 2022-(Feb) 2025 Fox and Badger deaths registers. It is grim reading.

Well over 600 foxes and over 150 badgers and, as I keep saying, these are only the reported deaths. You could probably double both totals.

In the last week Sarah Mills (Bristol Wildlife Rescue) had call outs to three RTA vixens who were aborting still born cubs.  There was also a heavily pregnant sow boar.

The persistence of local authorities to not put in place road under./overpasses for wildlife or speed bumps on the worse roads (where evening and night time "racers" kill a lot of wildlife) really shows the lack of intertest and concern.  "We have no budget for this" is always the response while always calling out what "champions for the environment and re-wilding" they are.

It has to change because we are losing too much wildlife -foxes, badgers, deer, otters, hedgehogs and more.

____________________________________________________

What did this achieve?  When the Green Party running Bristol City Council was sent a report on wildlife deaths it was "concerning" but fobbed off with the excuse that it would cost money. You can read about that exchange here https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2025/03/time-to-stop-playing-nice-with-local.html

 The Green Party states as item 3 of "Our Core Values":

1. Humankind depends on the diversity of the natural world for its existence. We do not believe that other species are expendable.

There is an article on The Green Party page "Nature Is In Crisis" and, yes, it is in crisis and in Bristol we are seeing deer, foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, birds of prey, otters and other species being killed by road users and this is tackled as a priority in many other countries.

The Green Party was voted in by many people who believed the promises and it is time that the Party actually steps up and becomes pro-active or sit back and accept the responsibility for doing nothing to try to save the wildlife that is important to our environment. But instead the are looking at developing homes on Green sites and attracting more business development which means money -far more important than any wildlife or even human cost? 

According to the Bristol City Council Road Casualty Review 2023 (my highlights):

"This report focuses on road collisions in Bristol that have been reported to the local police force and which resulted in either a fatality or a personal-injury (all referred to as casualties).  In 2023, there were 939 reported casualties (including 8 fatalities), this was 130 lower than the previous year.  

"There were 8 fatal casualties - a level that is equal to the recent (2013 to 2022) long-term average for Bristol’s roads of 8 deaths per year. "

What it seems that BCC are ignoring because it might cost money is that there are long stretches of road in Bristol used every night and especially more so at weekends, as "race tracks" and places where a driver can "put their foot down". In the small area I am in, which is far away from central Bristol, every night car breaks and speeding can be heard and at weekends it gets worse. The most basic way to stop speeding is the use of road bumps. Drivers hate them because they cannot speed above the legal limit. Even a wildlife rescuer in high-visibility gear had cars speeding past and had near miss incidents -on a suburban city road where people might also be crossing.

But, The Green Party Council has ignored all of this and their response to the follow up and noting human casualties was...to not respond. Which says a lot about their attitude and priorities.

As we see badgers, foxes and hedgehogs roll on to extremely rare or extinction around the UK the Green Party Bristol City Council can boast that it did its best in not giving a damn.

The Dox -Ever Seen One?

 
A supposed dox on display at the Grosvenor Museum (Chester, UK). The caption for this picture on the museum’s website reads, “This tatty looking specimen is possibly the only known dog-fox hybrid in the world. It is said that a male fox mated with a female dog on a canal boat near Beeston. It sat for many years on the staircase at Eaton Hall, before it was auctioned and donated to the Museum.

The only account you will find of this particular dox was written by J. Wentworth Day for The Sunday Dispatch of 31st July, 1960.

"There is a rumour that they will pull down Eaton Hall, the Duke of Westminster's vast mansion in Cheshire.  It looks exactly like St. Pancras Station.  So no onw will mourn it.

"Which reminds me that a few years ago I spent a week there.  Someone suggested to the late Duke that he pull the place down. "It would be a crime to pull it down," Bend Or* pondered. "As big a crime to pull it down as it was to put it up."

"Which brings me to the fox-dog.  You have never seen one.  Neither has one man in a million.;  Yet I met one, probably the only one in England, on the staircase.  It stood in the window, unmistakable, inexplicable, and inescapable. Before dinner, too.**

"What on earth is that creature?" I asked.

"Oh! that's our fox-dog," my host replied airily, as though he might indicate the family Jabberwock.

"Interesting, isn't he?"

"I straightened my tie, advanced cautiously.  There it was, a quizzical little thing, full of apologetic perkiness.  Just what you would expect of a fox who had taken the wrong turning. It was light in colour and as light on its feet as a leprechaun.

Above: The fox at the Grosvenor Museum parked next to the Dox

Above: the Dox on display (c)2025 LM/Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum

"Tattered about the ears, but no doubt it had wooed its way and won.  The brush-tail -or is it tail-brush- had a downward dip as if to say that the final "Who Whoop"*** was long ago halloaed.

"In fine, a gallant little blow-by -a cavallerly nightmare. And obviously old.  Dust and sun long ago faded any foxy-red there might have been.  None the less, the taxidermist had caught and imprisoned the spirit of foxy fun and debonair doggishness.

Above and below a close up of the Dox's head (c)2025 LM/Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum

"Written records, alas! do not exist. Legend says that the poor little oddity was one day hunted by the Cheshire Hunt, gave them a rattling run and was killed.  More authentically a friend at Eaton writes:

"'Apparently it was the result of a mongrel bitch, which lived on a barge in the Canal near Beeston, mating with a fox.  The stuffed fox-dog now at Eaton was one of the litter and it was presented to the late Duke many, many years ago. I have not been able to ascertain whether it died a natural death or whether it was in fact killed by hounds.'

"There the matter rests -and will probably rest for ever. But I, at least, can tell my grandchildren that I have seen and stroked a fox-dog.

Above: the legs of the Dox   (c)2025 LM/Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum

Below: a closer look (c)2025 LM/Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum

"The records of crosses between dogs and foxes are few.

"The original types of domestic dog may have started from a pre-historic wolf, fox, or jackal, now extinct.  In that case we may assume that the wolf-like dogs Samoyeds, Alsatians, and the rest, began as wolves; the Pomeranian and other sharp- nosed dogs as foxes; and the Saluki and Greyhounds as jackals.

"Whatever the answer, the fact remains that whereas a wolf  occasionally crosses with a dog, fox-dog crosses are infinitely scarcer.

"Numerous examples exist of wolf-dog crosses.  Buffon interbred between a wolf and a sheep-dog and kept a very careful record.

"He quotes also a cross carried out in 1773 by the Marquis de Spontin between a tame young she-wolf and a young dog.l

"Their descendants proved, as similar experiments have done, that after a few generations the wolf-cross entirely disappears.  The great-great-great-great-grandchildren of the original cross are almost invariably indistinguishable from an ordinary domestic dog."

When you look at the Dox held by the Grosvenor Museum the first thing that strikes you is that is does not have any diagnostic feature of a fox. There are slight things where you can see why somebody took the word of the donator that this was a dog-fox cross but it is not. As for the suggestion that dust and sunlight had bleached the red pigment from the coat that is just silliness. I have seen foxes kept in sunlight while on display for years and the red never goes.

For The Red Paper (2010) and the updated Red Paper 2022 I looked at the claims of dog and fox interbreeding.  Some cases seemed quite conclusive but then fell apart as they were looked into.  genetically, science tells us, a fox and a domestic dog cannot breed and have hybrid offspring. After 40 plus years of following up on such claims I have seen photographs, old film clips and video footage of claimed Doxes and the main evidence is that the dog in question "has the ears of a fox" or "It has a coat similar to a fox" and even "It is not as bushy but the tail is similar to that of a fox".

What was not around when this Grosvenor Museum fox was alive (it looks like mid 19th century taxidermy) and given as a curio gift was DNA testing. It wasn't even around when Wentworth wrote his rather ill informed little piece. The Museum makes it clear that the Dox has not been DNA tested and why should they fork out the money for that when a test returning the result "Domestic dog" immediately kills the attractions value?

I doubt very much that this dog was hunted. Far more likely it died naturally as a talking point curio for the Dukes at hunt balls and dinner parties. After all the animal was so rare -and they had something that was one-upmanship that could not be beat.

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*Grosvenor was known within family circles as "Bendor", which was also the name of the racehorse Bend Or, owned by his grandfather. Bend Or won The Derby in 1880.

** in other words he never saw it after more than a few glasses of wine or whisky.

***"Who Whoop" is the same as "halloaed" and is the call made when a fox is spotted by the hunt