We Know When The Old British Foxes Died Out So What About The Old Western European Fox?

 We know that Old British foxes (Greyhound/Hill and Cur) were knowingly wiped out through hunting. The hunting fraternity knew that these foxes, particularly the Mountain fox, were becoming scarcer then rarer and later that numbers were so low that these foxes were becoming extinct.

The 'great' naturalist-'sportsmen' of the day reported all of this in the various journals as well as popular and widely read books on hunting. It also became clear that by the start of the 19th century various hunts and hunt masters had developed the methods of creating artificial dens for foxes that were being imported and those kept in stables (but kept wary of humans) were fed correct nutritional diets. Knowledge of buying, homing and even fox diet was well established with various hunt masters having their own variations.

This tells us that the importing of European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) was well established by 1800 and reading of foxes being scarce to hunt in the 1600s indicates that the Old foxes were facing extinction a lot earlier than the 1860s but managed to hold on until that period. Even then the rare survivors, some possibly crosses with European New foxes, were still hunted and when the mountain foxes in Ireland became very rare some were sent as gifts from English hunt masters to their fellow 'sportsmen' on the island.

It seems that the Old foxes were gradually being replaced from the 17th century at least by imports. This shows us why and when the New red foxes (the ones we see today) got to England and then across the UK and into Ireland. As I noted in The Red Paper Canids my colleague LM and myself have noted the differences between the Old foxes and the new and LM has made several discoveries regarding appearances.

This brings us to the question of when Old West European foxes were replaced by the red fox. There is no doubt, based on art from old sources that that was at least one Old type fox and it may well have been related to the Old British Mountain fox. We have to start by accepting that and build up evidence from there. So what happened to the Old West European fox(es)?

We know, again via art, that by the 1600s (c 1660) the black markings we see on modern foxes started appearing so long before the markings appeared in the UK. We know foxes were hunted for fur, for 'sport' as well as food and it was noted by writers that the country folk in France consumed fox meat -far from unheard of elsewhere in the world. Although some Old types seem to have hung on in Germany and France the numbers fell and as anyone familiar with foxes knows; if foxes in a territory are killed off other foxes will move in.

We know that foxes tend to follow human migration and hang around villages and camps due to the amount of food discarded. This might lead foxes to explore an area and find no larger threats (wolves or jackals) but plenty of rabbits and other food. As human habitations spread and wars forced people to move away from their old lands so did the foxes and we have to remember that there were many migrations from the East and foxes may have followed these or have been kept as live food or even for their furs. Escapes were likely as foxes are notorious escapologists so they would look for territories and breed and  obviously offspring would disperse when old enough. 

This would explain how Vulpes vulpes moved into central and then Western Europe. This was not a process that took a few years but very likely centuries and although local hunters or naturalists (not much difference in the past) and country folk may have noticed that the foxes they used to see were gone and new ones had taken their place. 

We can say that the Old British foxes began to die out and become extinct in the 1860s though a few may have hung on in remote areas. We can hypothesise that the Old Western European foxes began to gradually be replaced so that by the 1600s the New fox was being seen more and moving in. As with the UK where very few naturalists and zoologists even know about the Old foxes the same can be said for Europe -the accounts from the 1800s make it clear that the foxes imported from Scandinavia were just as big or bigger than the British Mountain Fox and yet, no current experts seems to know this and as with the UK experts before we gathered all the evidence,  offer various explanations as to "why not" .

The only way we could track down this information is through any old journals, books or hunting diaries and that would need to be carried out my native language speakers who know where to start.

 Language is a barrier and even with my poor German the work would be beyond me. This is why the work needs European cooperation.