I am currently editing this book and the number of pages so far in what I expect to be a definitive source on British foxes stands at 256 pages and there is more to add.
It is planned that the book will have colour illustrations and photographs which might make the book slightly pricey but as the only book you are ever going to need....
I will update as things progress but a tentative publication date is August 2022
Normally when I post about a fox it is a dead one. So is this post...well, about a dead fox and a dead cub. Except the dead cub is alive.
Yesterday evening my colleague Zoe Webber told me that she had a call out from Secret World about an injured fox and cub. Arriving at the location she quickly found the vixen and headed off to the vet hospital. Sadly the vixen died enroute and when the local vet hospital examined her there was not that much interest in examining a dead fox -it was either road traffic or a birthing problem that killed her. Zoe was asked whether she could go and check for the cub which she did and it was found some distance from where the vixen had been but had been in a ditch for 5 hours. The assumption was that the cub was dead after all it was tiny.
The cub was handed to the vets and Zoe was surprised to get a message from Secret World this morning asking her to collect the cub as it was alive!
At the same time I received an email from the vets saying that it was good news;the cub was lively and eating well. At this point I had to check that I was awake.
A message from Zoe showed that she was also surprised but it seems the cub was breathing but not noticably and it was only on a quick check that the vet found this out. Looking at the video Zoe sent it is hard to believe that the cub we had slated for the Fox Death Study was the rather mobile little thing I was looking at.
It still has a fight but Secret World have enough experience so fingers crossed.
This just goes to show why it is important, especially this time of year, to report a good looking conditioned dead fox -there may be cubs nearby, The same applies with badgers.
So sad that the vixen died but we hope to find out how she died. And more than good news that the cub at least stands a chance at life now.
A while back I posted an article titled This Is HUMAN aided Evolution NOT "Invasive Species"
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I cannot keep explaining this so please, if you are interested read the previous wildcat posts.
Scottish wildcats are supposedly (like the red squirrel and badger) protected as endangered species. Other wildlife IS protected but in the UK killing animals seems a 'fun' thing (or psychotic behaviour) and something that local and national authorities as well as UK police forces are not comibg down hard on. In fact fox hunting with dogs as well as badger baiting is still ongoing in Cheshire and Shropshire and local police know this but "don't want trouble" apparently.
On private estates and forestry red squirrels are still being killed. Wildcats are still being killed as are badgers and foxes. Only when wildlife -ie a fox - threatens your livestock can action be taken and I have seen no evidence of cows or horse taken down by a fox yet (they'll fake that eventually).
So, yes, wildcats are still being killed and private landowners feel they can do what they want as it is their land. More people need to speak up.
Again, back in 1790 it was declared that were it not for feral (domestic) cats the wildcat species in Scotland would have been extinct long before: it was hunted and killed as adult, juvenile or cub for bounties or as 'sport' -'sport' wiped out wolves and it almost wiped out wildcats. There has never been a halt to the killing of ferals or wildcats until the pretence of protection given to wildcats which still allows the shooting and snaring or use of other traps to kill ferals -ferals that are keeping wildcats going as a species.
Ignoring written history and facts and yelling "we must keep wildcats 'pure' -kill ferals!" is showing that those involved have not studied their subject via anything other than the dogma handed down on TV, in books where it is repeated ad nauseum and in supposed centres of education.
I started my research in 1980 and have gone back into the literature and most today are only into wildlife as a career that pays until they retire. Naturalists do not retire they continue to work and I have a colleague (LM) who puts most modern zoologists to shame.
The subject was raised again about the re-introduction of wildcats (F. silvestris sp) to England and Wales. There is still talk of rearing and releasing pairs.
Let me make it clear that pairs of wildcats were being released around England back in the early to mid 1990s and this is known (or was) amongst wildlife people. The cats have been seen and reported (privately) on numerous occasions -a good deal of the time by people confused as to what type of cat they have seen.
In Wales, according to Natural Resources Wales and its Ancient Woodland Inventory report:
This new updated inventory (AWI 2011) indicates that there are around 95,000ha of ancient woodland (AW) in Wales, compared to the 62,000ha identified in the AWI 2004.
It was not determined if reports from Wales involved releases or escapees and in at least one case reports of the cats were said to go back "decades".
So wildcats are already here.
Contributions -no matter how small- are welcome as it will allow the ongoing study into UK foxes and wildcats No official funding is available for this type of work.
Thank you.
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The one thing about research when you find that 90% of what you learnt is incorrect is that you have to correct that learning. You have to correct things and provide anecdotal or actual physical evidence so that your peers can check and confirm.
In the 17th and 18th century the Scottish wildcat was clearly described as having a yellowish fur with stripes, etc. Of course, pale and darker fur is likely from cat-to-cat but it got me thinking that what the "experts" call a Scottish pure bred wildcat might in fact just be the end product of hundreds of years of wildcat-feral interbreeding.
The photo above is 19th century so pre 1900 when all the Museum Specimen types were acquired. Does it look like this....?
The above obviously has a much darker ground coat than the top photo. Therefore the top photo is a fluke. It may well have been examined and clearly identified as a Scottish wildcat but iyt is not. It is likely a wildcat-feral hybrid. Right? Well, what if I told you that I have a folder full of 19th century taxidermy in which only a few resemble the Museum Specimen type? The colour and even patterns vary as you might expect because -something that the experts appear to have forgotten- most individual animals whose species are striped or spotted have slight varioations in colour or pattern. None are exact clones of one another.
And after having tried (as with Old fox types) both large and small as well as national museums which body do you think owns the oldest true wildcat specimens -yes, I wrote "specimens" because there are two- in the UK? Well, odd though it may seem the British Canid Historical Society does!
Yes, the acquisitions manager is a true genius at getting old specimens and with one particular lot -which will be detailed in The Red Paper 1: Canids (2022)- she also got a pair of the oldest Scottish wildcat specimens I have seen in 40 years. These do not conform to the Museum Type and were shot, examined and clearly identified by one of the most famous British naturalist-'sportsman' of the day (1830s) and identification also confirmed by others.
Sadly, the lack of funds prevents a lot of the work we want to carry out such as examing specimens held around the country. What I am learning is actually almost making my head swim. Each week there seems to be something new and not just with wildcats.
Looking at a lot of the evidence we have gathered the Old fox types story needs to be up-dated from where it was a week ago. The BCHS has a fox dating back to the 1700s but also one of historical importance with its connection to Canada and France. But there are other historically significant specimens we have and would like to get a hold of. You think everything makes sense and is sorted and, typical fox, they present us with something new.
One might hope that The Red Paper 1: Canids (2022) and The Red Paper 2: Felids (2022) would bring in some revenue to support further research however the first Red Paper hardly sold more than 12 copies since 2010. It seems that wildcats and foxes are really a specialist interest. We've crashed into one "No Grants for That" stonewall after another so we keep going but with hands and feet shackled.
There is a DEFRA scheme to pay farmers for planting trees but if I recall that did not work that well last time.
And some claim we are currently back to medieval levels of woodland and forestry. The Domesday Book, which was compiled for England's new Norman overlords recorded wood-pasture and woodland covering about 15 per cent of the country.
These days about 13% of Britain's land surface is wooded.
The country's supply of timber was severely depleted during the First and Second World Wars, when imports were obviously extremely difficult and the forested area bottomed out at just under 5% of Britain's land surface in 1919.
I have discussed how new forests were then planted in the late 1940s though it needs to be remembered that some ancient Welsh forestry survived.
It is important to remember that trees are important to the eco system and woodland/forestry encourages back wildlife -mammals, birds, insects etc. and to be honest I think that any fields or waste areas in cities and towns then local authorties should make it a priority to plant trees.
Of course, certain authorities such as Brsitol City Council are constantly scheming and trying backdoors to build housing (much of it private) on Green Spaces vital to the City. As for housing the Council ought to be reminded that in the last ten years old buildings in the Central area as well as other parts of the City have had accommodation built -student accommodation run by private landlords. Perhaps rather than catering for the rent hiking private landlords who have temporary tenants the Council ought to consider making the use of old buildings and waste areas within the City a priority to build housing on for Bristol residents? Just a thought.
The fakery of "virtue signalling" that the City Council are champions of the environment is not working. Using rodenticides that kill wildlife then clamping down on information or refusing flatly to respond to a simple question after five months -allotment tenants concerned asked whether the rodenticides used by some other tenants was illegal or not. Total clamp down and flat refusal to respond and that includes when I asked them as well as a member of the Council Chamber with specific environmental responsibilities.
Where ever you live if you can plant trees or try to get your authority to plant trees -do it and not just for the wildlife but the future of you chldren or grandchildren.
The UK is a small place.
James Edmund Harting (1880):
The Hunting Museum, Melton Carnegie Museum in Melton Mowbray boasts that it is....
"Britain’s only hunting museum maintained by a local authority is on view within the Melton Carnegie Museum at Melton Mowbray.
"The opportunity for the museum came when the tourist office, which shared the former library building with the museum, moved out, allowing for a £500,000 refurbishment, including a large focus on hunting, for the first time.
"The Museum of Hunting Trust raised £130,000 for the new museum; the Heritage Lottery Fund contributed £370,000, Leicestershire County Council £20,000, Melton Borough Council £10,000 and the Friends of Leicester and Leicestershire Museums £1,000."
Yes, a museum dedicated to having wiped out Old British fox types, introduced and killed wolves, coyotes and jackals (documented) as well as killing pets and poultry for a few hundred years (but I doubt that will be in the description). Money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and local authorities.
While, for 40 years every single penny going into the British Fox Study has come out of my own pocket. The BCHS gets no funding as it is not available for this type of work yet a museum dedicated to killing wildlife gets considerable funding.
Three fox groups alone on Face Book have over 30,000 members and £1,00 from each of them would certainly guarantee the work continuing yet...nothing.
This is the sad state of affairs we are in and I think it shows that the once proud claim that England is a nation of animal lovers is far from accurate.
If you care -donate and let's bring the Old fox and Wildcats back from obscurity and learn the lessons before it is again too late
Back in the 1990s and when I wrote my 2000 wildcat and Ferals paper I had been told by zoologists that there was no such thing as a Corsican wildcat. In 2019 there was confirmation that such a cat did exist.
Here is a photo of the Corsican wildcat aka fox-cat (foxes are known as the cat-like canid and if you have observed them you know why) and a New York Post and a couple of other articles suggested it was a fox-cat hybrid. I assume that all these reporters purchased degrees as they have no brains.
Part of my research also included the "non existent" Irish wildcat but that is a matter for another day as my theory on the Corsican and Irish wildcats appears to have been correct.
But what about British wildcats -and I do not mean Scottish wildcats solely but wildcats from England and wales that are a rarity to find taxidermy of? They seem to have had similar habits and habitats to Scottish wildcats but were the English and Welsh cats separate genetic types or were all wildcats from the same stock but varying based on habitat?
We know that by 1790 both the naturalists and close observers of wildlife (mainly because it was mportant o know what you were killing) declared that if it were not for the inter-breeding of wildcats and feral domestics the wildcat species might well have been extinct long before. For hundreds (at least) of years and possibly longer feral domestic cats have introduced new blood into wildcats and the current view that every feral cat seen must be killed to "safeguard the purity of the species" is unscientific and based on pure dogma handed down over generations who had not really done the field-work or research.
I declared all ofthis in my 2000 paper and science appears to be jumping on board the flag-ship Hooper (oh, I wish I had an ego!), in the 2001 paper Genetic Identification of Wild and Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris) and Their Hybrids Using Bayesian Clustering Methods which zoologists and those involved with "preserving wildcat purity" appear to totally ignore or turn a blind eye to we read:
"The European wildcats used in this study were sampled from across the entire species' distribution range in Italy. Only 1 (Fsi284) of 48 genotyped European wildcats had admixed ancestry and was probably a hybrid with the domestic cat. Moreover, three additional putative European wildcats (Fsi70, Fsi73, and Fsi285) showed mtDNA haplotype Fca9, which was shared with three domestic cats. In both minimum-spanning network and NJ trees, haplotype Fca9 appears to be related to other domestic cat haplotypes and not to wildcat haplotypes (figs. 3 and 4 ). Therefore, although mtDNA haplotypes did not convey strong phylogenetic information, it is probable that Fca9 is a domestic cat haplotype. Nevertheless, the Bayesian assignment procedure classified Fsi70, Fsi73, and Fsi285 as European wildcats. The putative hybrid cat Fsi284 might derive from recent crossbreeding, while cats Fsi70, Fsi73, and Fsi285 could have a more ancient ancestry with domestic cats. Cats Fsi70, Fsi285, and Fsi284 were collected in Tuscany Maremma, on the Thyrrenian (western) coast of central Italy, and cat Fsi73 came from a central Apennines area geographically very close to Maremma. These localities map on the northernmost edge of the zoogeographical range of F. silvestris silvestris in Italy (fig. 1 ), which is thought to have been stable from the end of the last glaciation (Ragni et al. 1994 ), and were historically densely settled by humans and by potentially free-ranging domestic cats.
"These findings suggest that despite a long period of sympatry and syntopy, hybridization is negligible and is limited to particular areas at the geographical and ecological edges of the wildcat distribution in central Italy. However, more samples, and probably more microsatellite loci, should be analyzed to obtain quantitative estimates of the rate of crossbreeding in the Italian wildcat population. The microsatellites used in this study are widely spaced on the same chromosome or on separate chromosomes (Menotti-Raymond et al. 1999 ). Backcrossing of first-generation hybrids into the wildcat population will dilute the proportion of domestic parental genotypes through the generations, and linkage disequilibrium will be negligible after a few generations of backcrossing. Therefore, except for the introgressed nonrecombining mtDNA, evidence of episodic hybridization in the past might have been lost, and the identification of past hybridization might require an exponentially increasing number of molecular markers (Goodman et al. 1999 ). Thus, the existence of distinct groups of wildcats (European and African wildcats) does not necessarily mean that we have identified “pure” populations with no introgression, but rather that we have identified cats that show little evidence of recent domestic cat ancestry."
But even so there is the end note about keeping and protecting any pure populations -if they can somehow be identified. It is very unlikely that there are any true "pure" wildcats and natural evolution means that feral cats are providing new blood -the mass felicide of wildcats across the UK and still ongoing (despite alleged protection) killing by poisoning, shooting and snaring of F. silvestris means that humans need to take full responsibility (as they should for the extinction of Old Foxes) and step back and let evolution save the wildcat. If any pure wildcats exist they would be very rare and New wildcats (hybrids or not) are still genuine wildcats.
As I trudge through more fox post mortem reports I am aware that some find that of no interest but at a time when we are seeing fox numbers...
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