The most important thing for the ongoing research into Old British foxes and wild cats is the physical and anecdotal evidence.
Old images whether photographic, paintings or illustrations tell us a lot about the Old foxes, Taxidermy is important to us for the simple reason that one day we hope to have DNA work carried out ob Old fox specimens which will tell us whether they were a unique island sub-species (in the UK and Ireland).
We know that the wolf was a unique island sub-species of the arctic wolf not affected by island dwarfism but any samples still existing are in museums and, again, it would be good to get DNA work carried out on those remains.
The same applies to wild cats and DNA there can help a great deal.
We have gathered images of taxidermy of Old foxes and have a few examples, however we really need to acquire more for research and as a totally unfunded Study purchasing examples that we see are not really possible and they are lost to end up as "a talking point in the man cave".
Our hope is that people who have such old fox and wild cats will consider donating them but this relies on someone having an interest in the foxes and wild cats and wanting to help actually uncover the lost history of our extinct species to educate and try to prevent future extinctions.
It is a lot to ask but an actual fox taxidermy can uncover far more than a photograph of it can -though photographs are most welcome and can help form a data base for the research.
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