Just a heads up. We have made a decision to halt (except if an exceptional case crops up) to stop the Fox Deaths Project with Fox no. 50 so are 15 away from that. Sad to think that those 15 will not take long to come up with.
Where cooperation from the public has happened it has been good though there was a little hoaxing and "being awkward", too. Wildlife groups in Bristol have been largely not helpful and one would assume people in wildlife groups would want to know why foxes are dying -and badgers for that matter. Foxes submitted and foxes we lost due to weekends and no storage facilities in the last year total around 80 and those are only the ones we know of. Fox mortality from cub to adult is high.
At one point (well, over a year long period) I was asking wildlife groups whether any members had an old but still working freezer that we could store dead foxes in until Post Mortems --donate freezers not keep dead foxes at home in amongst the frozen foods! Nothing. I made it clear that we were losing foxes because Fri-Monday the PM lab was closed and asked several times whether any of the taxidermists on the groups (of which there were more than a few) could temporarily store a dead fox for us -silence.
I could go on but for myself and my colleague, Zoe Webber, at times it was disheartening. I even tried at one point to ask whether people wanted to donate toward a freezer. Nothing. It was the same as when I originally asked whether people could donate toward post mortems as just a basic one can cost over £250 and if there are tests even more. Nothing. That is why I had to fight for over three months to get official approval for post mortems -and we have learnt a lot from them.
So why stop at 50 foxes? Well, official bodies are tightening their purse strings and no one wants to spend money on "just foxes" but so far we have been lucky. Giving a cut off point of 50 means we have an even number of post mortems to provide useful data nationally, not just locally. It also means to organisation funding PMs knows that we are not going to try to make this an ongoing thing for years (we would and that includes the pathologist). The only way to continue without officially funded PMs would be through public funding and no one cares to do that.
Zoe and I will continbue to monitoir badger deaths (when and if people want to report them) as well as fox deaths as an ongoing thing but that's it.
The next task will be to write up what we have learnt and then distribute that.
It is a shame but the UK is not the animal loving country of myth and running the Bristol Badger Group and Fox Study is a grind at times and with only occasional support such as public reporting there is not much we can do. It was the public apathy back in the early 1990s that killed off the then Bristol Badger watch. Pretty birds, butterflies, fluffy squirrels and others seem to be the things people want to see and hear about and those "horrid large mammals" are of no interest.
I would like to change that.
And that cruelty comes from feeders not anti-fox people.
Go head- I have heard it all before:
"Nasty man. Doesn't care about foxes!"
"What a horrid person my furry fox babies are well fed!"
And the ever perrenial:
"I shall carry on feeding my foxes as they face so much cruelty from humans!"
There are variations and I've come across them all on fox groups -including finding that I have been blocked despite my politeness (I am never rude to people so I am basically being blocked because the truth hurts).
Let's make sure that everyone is aware of my credentials: I started the British Fox Study in 1976 and that has been continuous and ongoing ever since so 50 years. I have written books as well as papers and many articles on foxes and like most sane people oppose hunting. After four months of arguing and 18-20 hour days I succeeded in getting official approval for the Fox deaths Project set up to collect and submit foxes that appear to have died unusually for post mortem examination by what I consider to be one of thye top pathologists in the UK. All foxes are from within the Bristol area and by finding out how or why they died it helps give vets and rescues (that are interested or can be bothered) and understanding of fox deaths/illnesses nationally. That is persuading authorities (not including Bristol City Council who refuse to cooperate) to put thousands of pounds into this...mainly because "fox lovers" were not willing to donate financial help. The work is groundbreaking.
I regularly advise on fox health issues: again, many feeders mistreat mange and that results in mild mange developing into severe and life threatening mange. One rescue in 2020 asked feeders to let them know if a certain leash (group) oif foxes was coming into their gardens. The foxes had serious mange and needed to be caught and treated then released back into the area. Many feeders refused to coopertate or give information. Why, if you "love foxes" would you not cooperate and rather see the foxes die from mange. I've seen that and it is not nice and when you see a cub a few months old dying in front of you from mange it is heartbreaking.
In my own area there are fox feeders and in 2021 and 2022 two foxes were sighted with mange. I asked any feeders who could identify the foxes to get in touch privately via messenger on FB so I knew whether the foxes were being treated or not because I did not want to overdose if it came to treatment. Not a word. Apparently fox feeders had my message passed on to them but decided it was all "jolly secret".
In another case a fox in Bristol had to be rescued and treated by Secret World because it was heavily manged. It turned out that two feeders living opposite each other had both been treating the fox but either the cross-meds was making treatment ineffective or the fox was not getting the meds. Left longer the fox would have gone to far and organ failure would have set in. Feeders keeping it all their "jolly secret" until they had to contact me and I told them what to do.
I haver seen the images of foxes so far gone with mange that organ failure probably set in not long after the photos were taken. The feeder alerted me as he had 'discovered' what appeared to be a new type of super mange. What I wanted to call him will remain in my head. Basically, he had been using the homeopathic drops (because, like most feeders he got them for free) which seem to work in some early stage cases but what this person did was watch the mange get worse and worse and rather than alert a rescue allowed the foxes to slowly die. If -if - you are serious about helping a fox with mange, early signs or not, then spend the money and buy the correct treatment from the pet store and do not dare say that "it's a bit expensive" when you are putting out at least £40-£60 of chicken legs/wings per month to feed a wild fox that can find enough rats, mice and insects to survive on.
"Oh I bought a load of discounted chicken for my babies" is an obscene statement. That food was discounted because there are families in financial crisis and there are parents who actually eat the scraps left from their childrens meals and that is in the year 2022 and that cheap chicken is not used to feed them and their children but foxes. When you are a child going to bed with hunger twisting your stomache is not pleasant -I know.
Sensible feeders support feed wildlife in hard winters or when a vixen has had cubs and needs to get extra. Even I have done that because I know thge local area and what is available. Feeding twice or three times daily, putting out a huge mound of food for foxes (and badgers) is an obscenity and if there were laws as in other countries it would be a wildlife crime. "Horrid hunters killing poor fluffies!" How about "Horrid humans overfeeding foxes to the point of obesity and creating health problems for foxes and weakened systems allowing disease to kick in"? Anyone want to see the post mortem photos?
There ius a reason why, if you feed wild birds, that you need to move where you put the food and also regularly disinfect feeders: disease and viruses -with pigeons, etc, PMV is a nasty virus and unless you can find someone to take them in a keep them for life (they cannot be released as itr spreads the virus) they have to be killed. No softly softly "PTS" -they are put down, killed by a vet and that is the law once they are handed in.
Badgers and foxes, domestic cats -all feeding from the same heap day after day can have very serious implications and we know Avian Influenza Virus has jumped to foxes who eat infected birds (in some cases being fed them deliberately) and we do not want that to jump to humans because it woul;d make Covid look like a summer cold. It is a serious risk (as is covid cross over) especially when areas of feeding are not regularly cleaned and people coax foxes to take food from their hands or coax them into their homes (same with badger feeders).
AIV or Covid becomes widespread in foxes (and badgers) then there will be mass culls "for human health and safety reasons" and there is absolutely nothing you could do about it other than watching pest controllers bank balances getting fat. Oh, buy ear plugs as the one thing you will become familiar with is the sound of the work going on.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
Infected or not there is no testing and a bullet is an easy solution.
These are wild canids, not garden pets or your fluff babies. Use your brain. Here are images of trim and naturally feeding foxes.
Social Media "Like" feeding should constitute a criminal offence under the wildlife act, however, the anti-fox people love you because this is killing foxes: they cannot run as fast as a vehicle approaches -"Splat!" They cannot outrun a dog -Bite, rip, tear. They certainly are open to other threats that a trim and healthy fox would avoid and the risks include leg and head injuries as they cannot naturally jump fences, climb over things and so on as a trim fox might. The health ramifications for newly born fox cubs is bad.
I have studied and researched foxes for 50 years and I have only seen this overfeeding in the last (lets say) 15 years. I want to see foxes live long and full lives and some can, if they avoid cars, live up to 8 or 12 years but that is while living naturally. They eat rats and mice so less poisons are needed and that makes a better environment for us all (I am not even going to mention the people who feed and photograph their "garden rat!").
I have been accused of thinking more about fox welfare. I do not see that as a negative. I want to continue to see urban foxes living naturally and healthily and to outlast the original three British fox types and for future generations to see them -from their windows or from trail cam footage/photos. On a weekly basis I see how many foxes are found dead and that in itself makes it important to me, not just as a naturalist but also an animal lover, to fight and educate people. Ignore the homeopathic drops for mange and buy a guaranteed, effective treatment (and not from some "local expert" who is buying in bulk which in itself is very shady) and cut back what you are feeding the foxes and badgers IF you want them to live long lives.
If my writing this upsets feeders -good. It is a wake up call because at the moment I can foresee just one thing going wrong and fox culls being the norm in towns and cities. I do not want to give the anti-fox people that 'joyful' sight.
THINK.
CONSERVE WILDLIE.
In future I may well be naming and shaming the bad feeders because action IS needed.
Now go off and say nasty thi9ngs about me.
Foxes and even badgers, as well as domestic cats will take rodents and they are very efficient at it. Many forget hawks and owls also so rodents.
I have just spent three years of intense research gathering photographs, illustrations, making maps and checking and double checking sources for the two Red Papers since they not only challenge vwildlife dogma in the UK but look at so many angles. The reason I had that amount of time to devote to the manuscripts was the covid lockdown. After that there was trhe fight to get the Fox Deaths Project up and running as well as my usual advisory work so I have/am working 18 hour days.
I have six trail cams that were ready for the exotics work -cats and wolverine- but apart from covid there was another problem. Farms where we knew wolverine and large cats had territories were put up for sale. Despite the fact that I had letters and photographs those involved suddenly denied everything. In the case of one very well known farmer who photographed and recorded a great deal abouyt wolverine on his farm the family denied ever having heard of any such thing while admitting that no evidence existed (they had destroyed almost 30 years work) and that if I publicised the ('non-existent') wolverine on the land they would sue "for decimating land value" -in other words; no one was going to buy good sheep land if they knew there were wolverine about.
It wasn't the first time this had happened. I doubt it will be the last. The pronblem is if the old owner dies and the family want to sell then "Oh, there is a resident puma/wolverine in the area" just might tip a seller into saying "no". Money talks.
If the Red Papers ever get published you will see that my research is intensive: I get one quote then I will look for a secondary or even third confirmation. I study flora and fauna in an area as well as geographic features and game trails -all to assess whether it is feasible for a particular animal nto live in an area (incidentally, it was such research that helped me find out how badgers hadv survived after centuries of melecide).
I have traced the keeping of wolverine in the UK as far back as possible and there are a couple of famous examples. Discussing how and when they got into the UK countryside will not involve citing (so many people stole material and their 'expertise' from my old Exotic Animal Register bulletins and advisories and still continue using the out dated material) World War 1, World War 2 or even the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act (DWAA).
Shockingly (not really since I have learnt that 'experts' of high standing can never be trusted to even mildly wobble the zoological boat) one very senior man informed that there was a dead wolverine at the side of a road just two miles from his establishment would not answer calls or faxes (something he had always done very quickly before even when discussing large cats such as pumas). The actual physical proof, the evidence we had discussed before, was there just a short drive away and two wildlife rangers had seen the carcass. When the observers drove by the spot next day the carcass was gone. I used a rather underhand trick to find out from the highways department "What happened to the wolverine you picked up yesterday -we haven't got it?" (I had not said I was with any organisation but they put two and two together -who else would know about a wolverine dead near the roadside?) Oh, I learnt who got the wolverine and where it was sent.
Wolverine in the UK is not any "urban myth" and only an idiot would identify a wolverine as a "muddy badger"! Incidentally I was once threatened with legal action if I mentioned a certain "professionals" name when I proved that his muddy badger explanation was pure debunking (and he was playing the "believers" while acting as a DEFRA expert witness). That is the point when you know that you have caugfht someone out and they are worried -why would someone be so concerned if you respond to their theory (politely) and stating case after case of well observed wolverine (by naturalists no less as well as at leasdt two RSPCA inspectors) at close quarters? Surely as zoologists, biologists and naturalists we gather and assess the data aqnd thenb present it?
There is enough material as well as (anecdotal -police reports/incidents etc) testimony as to how wolverine got into the British countryside and one day that will need to see the light of print!
I have not given up it is a case of time and absolutely no funding and without money you can do very little.
One thing youy will find, I certainly have over 50 years and I have read a lot, is that there are many "Last wolf killed" or "last cougar killed" stories. It gets confusing. If the last wolf was killed at such-and-such a location on such- and -such date then how was the last wolf also killed at such-and-such a location on such- and -such date??
We are dealing with oral history and local oral history at that. It was, I am sorry to write, a proudf boast that an area had killed off the last badger, fox, otter or wolf. The killer was then a local folklore hero and evenb in 2022 some still recount the last act of lupicide as a great battle of man and beast (ignoring, if they know of it, the felicide, melecide or vulpicide that went on in their area/country). The next county over in the days of foot or horse travel was quite literally another country -even accents were different. So the Laird of one area obviously wanted the praise and gratitude of people for haing "his man" get rid of a foul beast and the animal in question was often built up into a killer of children and women!
Many interpret "the last wolf" accounts as meaning "The last wolf in Scotland" but when you actually check the original accounts you see why there is confusion: the accounts refer to the last wolf in a region as demonstrated here:
The River Findhorn
Popular legend has it that the very last wolf killed in the Highlands (and so considered to be the last in Britain), was killed by the hunter MacQueen, of Pall-a-chrocain, on the river Findhorn, in 1743. MacQueen himself, who died in 1797, was a giant of a man, and renowned as a deer hunter.
A great black beast had killed two children (shades of the Beast of Gevaudan, France although that was a hyena as noted in my book Strange and Mysterious Beasts), and the Laird of MacIntosh had called a meeting above Fi-Guithas to seek out and destroy the perpetrator. All were there at the allotted hour except for MacQueen. When he eventually he arrived MacIntosh asked sarcastically: "What kept you?"
"I brought him for you", replied MacQueen, tossing out the severed head of the last wolf from under his plaid.
Harting, from whose British Animals Extinct Within Historic Times (1880) this account is drawn, quotes Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, from 1829, giving what he claimed were MacQueen's own words to MacIntosh (though setting the tale -and adding a tad more confusion- in Moy in Inverness-shire):
"As I came through the slochk (i.e., ravine) I foregathered wi' the beast. My long dog there turned him. I buckled wi' him, and dirkit him, and syne whuttled his craig (i.e., cut his throat), and brought awa' his countenance for fear he might come alive again, for they are very precarious creatures."
Strathglass
According to one local legend the last wolf in Strathglass, by Beauly, was killed close to where St Ignatius' Well is today. This is how James Harting gave the story in 1880, in British Animals Extinct Within Historic Times:
".. a woman of Cre-lebhan, near Strui, on the north side of Strath Glass... had gone to Strui a little before Christmas to borrow a girdle (a thick, circular plate of iron, with an iron loop handle at one side for lifting, and used for baking bread). Having procured it, and being on her way home, she sat down upon an old carn to rest and gossip with a neighbour, when suddenly a scraping of stones and rustling of dead leaves were heard, and the head of a Wolf protruded from a crevice at her side. Instead of fleeing in alarm, however, "she dealt him such a blow on the skull with the full swing of her iron discus, that it brained him on the stone which served for his emerging head."
The story was still told in the Highlands for decades after. The Inverness storyteller Andrew Mackintosh, whose family comes from Strathglass, has a version of it from his Granny. Alec Williamson, the great Traveller storyteller from Edderton in Sutherland, also knows the legend, though in his version the woman sits down on the cairn, not to gossip, but, as Alec discreetly puts it, "to perform a natural function."
St Ignatius' Well.
The Dionard Wolf
This one is full of controversy for various reasons. Graham Bruce, the Head Teacher of Durness Primary School in the far north of Sutherland, and a great enthusiast for old tales, gave me the newspaper clipping which I reproduce below. It's from The Northern Times and its From Our Old Files section, of September 2004. The publication date of the original piece was 26th September, 1929:
"Standing midway between Brora and Helmsdale is a stone on which there is an inscription in effect that here, between 1690 and 1700, the last wolf in Sutherland was killed. From the following excerpt from an article to a Northern paper by a gentleman of veracity, it would appear that a wolf was seen in Sutherland as late as 1888.
"The author of the article, who was the guest of a shooting tenant in Sutherland, went out on the hill one day alone. During the afternoon a thick mist came down, which resulted in his losing his way. Night coming on, he decided to put up in a cave which he accidentally came across in the valley of Dionard. He made a fire and fell asleep.
"'I awoke with a great start and looked at my watch. It was one o'clock in the morning, and the weather had cleared. The moon appeared and the stars shone with a flickering and a frosty lustre like great diamonds on the black corsage of night. The musty odour had become most intense, and as my sleepy eyes threw off their shattered torpor, I saw with a shiver of apprehension a pair of sunken baleful looking eyes regarding me steadily and stealthily across the dying embers of the fire.
"'I slipped a couple of cartridges into my gun, and as I did so I heard a low painful whine. I could now make out a white form like a huge dog lying not more than three feet from me. Its head rested on its paws and so far from showing any signs of hostility, it seemed to exhibit symptoms of friendliness. Its coat was a kind of silver-grey in colour and was thick and curly, but the face showed signs of great age.
"'I stood up with my gun at my shoulder, but the beast did not move, and I could not find it in my heart to shoot; instead I threw it a ham sandwich. It nosed wearily, but did not attempt to eat it, so I tried it with a gorgonzola one, which it rejected with some evidence of repulsion. It then rose, and I saw to my unbounded astonishment that I was faced by a great silver-grey female wolf. She whined again, but kept her distance, and I then saw that in her eyes brooded a look of unutterable loneliness and misery.
"'A female wolf, and the last wolf had been killed in Sutherland between 1690 and 1700. I could have gained lasting glory by shooting her, but my hand was stayed. It was I who had invaded her poor little dwelling, and she had shared it with me without hostility. She should suffer no harm from me. Her ancestors had wandered here when Scotland was joined to Greenland, and had shared these wan wastes with the majestic elk and the ivory-tusked boar; fighting and suffering and dying in those vast oak and pine forests, the remains of which are still visible in the great mosses which abound all over Sutherland."
Some stated that it could not have been a wolf as they were extinct. Some claimed the man only saw a shepherd's dog. The man who was there and who saw the animal in question had no doubt that it was a wolf. Was it a wolf?
In The Red Paper 2022 Vol. 1 Canids I take a look at wolves in Britain and prove, based on reports at the time in books and newspapers/magazines that wild roaming wolves were found in Britain from Willesden (then a village), Wales to Scotland. Survivors of our Old native island species? Sadly, I doubt it. Wolves were kept in private menageries large and small and even in travelling shows. Escapes were not uncommon -all were, obviously, 'recaptured'. My book looks at these histories in far more detail and so when you read about the "last" wolf or anything killed check to make sure it was not a regional extinction rather than national.
Normally, I do not check stats on this blog but I wanted to see which posts have been more popular. That led me, by clicking the wrong button, into seeing what countries were checking out the blog. I always assumed that it was just the UK.
It is a pity there is no feedback on posts, questions or queries because to me this shows that there is a definite interest in foxes, their lives, habitats and deaths. There have been 239 posts since January, 2021 when I decided to set the blog up and 5,204 views is far more than I expected.
No idea why the blog gets so many views but it is a great start to getting wild canids recogniosed as valuable parts of the eco system and some protection.
THANK YOU to those who do visit the blog.
Japan 17
Other 128
AIV could -"could"- become a problem with foxes just as it could become a problem with badgers.
People do not like that their way of feeding and interacting with their "furry fox babies" has to change. Ditto with badgers. Enticing foxes to feed on the doorstep, from your hand or coaxing them into homes with food is moronic. Buy a pet dog. There are even people who feed rats in the garden. Well, it started as one and I advised to move food away from where it could get at it as one rat leads to ...many rats (now they have a "furry garden pet" problem and want to know what to do).
Wildlife is wild and people are acting with stupidity by feeding mice, rats, foxes, badgers and anything else they can and some do this simply for social media "likes". AIV is far nastier than covid and I was waiting for a good while to see this cross-over into foxes but lucky so far. I was aware of AIV in foxes in Europe and that was something I hoped that we would not see here. But a dead bird with AIV is a free meal so...
And although we do not know numbers of foxes that have died in the UK with AIV it is NOT a panic situation but one to keep an eye on. No one takes my word for it so, again, and note DELIBERATE feeding of foxes:
If we got the right information passed along to the authorities then this should be classed as a wildlife crime and possible prosecutable crime to potentially pass the virus to humans.
This is all very grim and makes me want the days when only mange was a problem. Looking at the number of normal fox deaths in the UK it is obvious that the fox population was under stress. I am hoping not, but this could potentially push foxes to being a rare sight in future.
I really hope I am wrong.
I started my fox/wild canid work back in 1976 and that involved field work, observation in situ as well as a great deal (a lot !) of archi...
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