The Confusion Name Game - Scandinavian Foxes

 

photo (c) 2021 Rødrev Gjershaugs

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I was looking into the Norwegian and Swedish foxes allegedly imported into the UK by the old 19th century fox hunts. Allegedly bigger, faster and a "better sport" that the British Mountain fox. A colleague (LM) had pointed me in that direction so as every avenue has to be looked at off I went.

Online you will find very little information on Red foxes in Scandinavia and it took a lot of searching before I found the right sources. Gjershaugs pho above is of a red fox which foxers will notice certain traits in.

The big shock I got was on the page Scandinavia Foxes where there is no information but, underneath the description "Mountain fox" I found this photograph.

Norwegian mountain fox (c) 2021 Aina Bye

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Anders Angebjorn of the Zoological Society of Sweden told me that:

"... red foxes are known to vary in fur. There is also clear size trends within Sweden for example. So I think that the variation in the art can be explained by seasonal differences, winter fur, summer fur, and geographic differences. But there is no doubt that they are all red foxes."

Didrik Vanhoenacker, Biologist for public enquires, Natural History Museum put me in touch with mammalogist Kjell Danell who was kind enough to send three fox illustrations as well as the following information:

"Three varieties of red fox from Meves & Holmgren 1873. There are more varieties and the proportion varies over time and latitude. The most valuable was the black one. In general, the foxes in the north were darker brown and with more black, like 9815. (below -THS)

Fur export (lynx, marten, arctic fox, beaver, wolverine, squirrel …) from Sweden to countries in Europe including England was large and good for the economy. All skins were bought by the men of the kings and some were taken as skin. Therefore we have statistics from about 1550 to 1610 (Steckzen 1964). The main export of fox skins from Stockholm was annually 1 000 –3 600, also from other cities. These records do not involve living foxes only skins. "

The other fox illustrations are shown below.

The red fox and notice the rings in the tail which is something I, Hayley de Ronde and LM picked up on a while ago

A nice colouration.

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Now that looks straight forward -foxes come in all sizes and colours -we see this in the UK. However, it did not help us with Erik Pontoppidan's claim in The Natural History of Norway (1775) that up to 4000 foxes per year were exported and I say claim as that may have been supposition on my part as he was probably talking about fur exports and not live.

We have no real records to hand (if any still exist today) of foxes imported from Norway and Sweden -a red herring or just part of the huge trade in animals during the 19th century for which we have no access to records of? The UK imported leopards, jackals, wolves, kangaroos, lions and basically any and all birds and mammals (and fish) you can think of. Foxes were "just foxes" and we do know that thousands were imported from Europe each year for the hunts but where they were shipped from was not necessarily where they originated from.

I read the red fox entry on the Nporwegian Carnivore Centre by Nicklas Iversen and was somewhat surprised:

"The red fox is our most common carnivore. Red foxes are found throughout the country: in forests, along the coast, in towns and in the country. The red fox is extremely adaptable."

Which seemed straight forward enough but then:

"Although it is a carnivore, the red fox is very versatile in terms of what it eats. Eggs, beetles, worms and berries are all good food sources. But, above all, the red fox is a mouse hunter. The fox has adapted to living in the cultural landscape created by humans. Both because we scatter trash and food scraps around, and because mice and small rodents flourish in our vicinity.

The red fox has a unique way of hunting mice. It uses it’s excellent hearing to listen for mice in passageways running beneath grass or snow. The fox then jumps high in the air and dives onto the ground. The purpose of this exercise is to collapse the mouse’s passageways, trapping the mouse. If the red fox is able to do this, catching the mouse is easy.

The red fox may also eat baby roe deer (fawns) and hares (leverets) lying in the grass. These young animals are hiding and relying on their camouflage to keep them concealed. The fox has a good sense of smell and can locate them without seeing them. When fully grown, hares and roe deer are generally too fast for a fox. Special conditions, such as deep snow, are needed for them to be caught. In such conditions, foxes have been known to get hold of adult roe deer too.

The red fox may also help itself to livestock. Most people will probably have heard that the red fox can take chickens, but rabbits and small lambs can also fall prey to a fox."

Firstly, the fox is seen as being an omnivore -it will eat insects, fruit and much more and it is opportunistic in that an animal lying dead out in a field or in woodland is a meal it will not turn its nose up at. But "Most people will probably have heard that the red fox can take chickens, but rabbits and small lambs can also fall prey to a fox" is a little off. In this day and age chickens should not be regularly predated by foxes unless it is due to bad management or where hundreds od chickens are left as "free roaming" in a field. The "chicken stealer" view is the same as the "lamb killer" or even "sheep killer" ones -an occasional lamb or chicken but in the main a lot of the reports were found to have been down to human theft. In the wild food is food.

Where I sat back amazed was the "rabbits...also fall prey to a fox" because it is the most basic thing we know about foxes -the rabbit is the one thimng they will hunt and even den near to a yard full of chickens but ignore them to go out and rabbit hunt. It's almpost like writing that an alcoholic "may" touch alcohol!

Then I read that red foxes were an "invasive species" which had me wondering what was going on. Of course a good few misquotes or things phrased in a way that someone might think they mean something else.

Red foxes, due to human activity, are moving further into the mountains which were exclusively the homes of arctic foxes. This is where the confusion starts. An arctic fox is a "mountain fox". A red fox is a "mountain fox". An arctic fox in the fells is a "fell fox" and a red fox in the fells is a "fell fox". An arctic fox in the marshes is a "marsh fox" while a red fox in the marshes is....come on, you know the answer -a "marsh fox"!

Whereas in the UK there were three distinctive types of fox adapted to specific habitats so that a Hill fox lived in the hills and mountains and a mastiff/bulldog fox lived in the low lands while the Cur fox was the commonest and lived in and around human ghabitation so that the names (originally) defined them in Scandinavia all bets are off!

(c)2021 Earth.com The arctic fox or...the Mountain fox or fell fox or marsh fox or....

Now, yes, we know in the 19th century one arctic fox escaped from a ship that sank but that is probably neither here nor there. The thing is that if Swedish or Norwegian foxes were imported to the UK they were only larger than the then hill foxes because the original hill foxes had all been wiped out by that time and their places taken by imported foxes.

Now, that red fox listed as a "mountain fox" is interesting and here I will leave it for, I hope, Hayley to explain why.