We Had Wolves and Foxes In Britain -Did We Also Have A Jackal-type Canid?

 

There is one reason that DNA work is needed on the Old fox varieties that once existed in the UK -the Mountain/Greyhound, the Mastiff/Hill and the Cur or Common fox. 

Even back in the mid to late 1800s, by which time the Old foxes were very likely extinct, the 'experts' (I am reminded of the mocking way my late friend Franklyn A. Davin-Wilson defined an "expert" -"X=The Unknown and Spurt is a drip under pressure") were mainly 'naturalists in the sense that they had ideas of grandeur but were really mainly interested in only one thing; hunting and killing anything that moved for 'fun'. The had to know their animals to be able to get more fun out of killing them and getting a trophy (a psychologist could get a paper out of this behaviour).

Remember that there was nothing in the way of "conservation" (another word hunts loved to use) other than allowing foxes to breed and live freely without hinderance from the local (employed by master of the fox hounds) gamekeeper. It was written well before the 18th century that foxes were lessening in number. Hunts were 'suffering' and despite the warnings which were near panic creating because no fox equalled "no sport" and writers make it clear that this troubled them deeply. So as the last of the Mountain foxes was hunted into extinction the time honoured tradition of importing thousands more foxes from Europe replaced them.

These 'experts', mostly after the demise of the Old foxes, argued with and ridiculed those who had hunted the foxes. It was a nonsense that there were "three fox types" and they were nothing more that occasional small, medium sized and the occasional outsized red fox. These people had access to libraries with every piece of information they needed and could easily have visited someone with a mountain fox taxidermy. However, they did what so many after them have done and that was to sit in a comfortable armchair, drink their port and 'know-it-all' without checking.

It is interesting that despite the taxidermy out there one generation after another since 1900 has referred to Mountain foxes as "hunters' tall stories" or "just the occasional large fox" and I read this over and over again in books from the 1950s on. 1969 "Well I have never seen one" and 1970s/1980s "all I ever see are regular red foxes" which actually demonstrates one thing and that is when it comes to these authors/'experts' their statements are ill-informed and worthless.  They have obviously not read the old sources or done any other type of research because had they then they would know the Mountain fox was gone by the 1860s. These are the same people who hail the tabby European wild cat as the true Scottish wild cat when it is another import from Europe and bears no resemblance to the true British wild cat and the original wild cat in Scotland was announced as extinct by the 1860s (all catalogued and referenced in The Red Paper Felids).  Those naturalists who had studied and killed wild cats visited museums and noted how one exhibit after another held no true wild cat just hybrids or "clearly" feral domestic cats -dogma had arrived.

Incidentally, it appears that these wild cats were transported around and released into shooting country up to at least the 1920s.

When Britain was separated 10,000 years ago by the Doggerland flooding from Europe free movement of animals was gone and they were confined to this island. We had a separate sub-species of arctic wolf that was not affected by island dwarfism (which should not be a surprise) and lived on until it was wiped out because it was a wolf even if the local wolves were no "problem". Forests and woods cut down or burnt to drive out wolves (and other forest wildlife) to kill. 

We also had what would have been a type of fox that existed in Europe until the gradual spread of the red fox which was the result of wiping out the Old Western fox.We have managed to build up a picture of what these foxes looked like.

We know that the Mountain/greyhound fox was fast, had great stamina and could "put up a fight at the end" which was what every 'sportsman' wanted  and these Mountain foxes were big. They dwarf other foxes and they look a little unusual. These foxes had survived more than 10,000 years until all of the high prestige animals that were hunted were pushed into extinction and suddenly the fox became an animal that could be hunted. One other thing t5hat was noted about Mountain foxes was that their young were "stubble born" -out in the open and easily moved if threats approached which is somewhat coyote-like. In fact the Mountain fox had many traits that are similar if not the same as coyotes (wild canids have a good few similar behaviour traits).

In Europe there was the wolf, the jackal and then the Old fox. In the Americas there were wolves, coyotes and foxes.  In Britain there were wolves, mountain foxes and the two type of local environment suited foxes. The Mountain fox had many traits of the coyote and jackal and seemed to fill the same niche in Britain. 

I need to point out that when Ireland was separated from Britain it also had its own wolves and foxes -which would develop for the environment it was living in and those adaptions would, some would argue, make them also unique sub-species. Unfortunately, Ireland seems to have wiped out its species much earlier than Britain and Mountain foxes, etc. were sent by English hunts to those in Ireland top continue the sport. Irish hunts also imported red foxes from Europe so what is seen there today are not true Old Irish foxes but descendants of the imported ones and no new stock from Europe or England from the 1910s on.Oh, and I've proved Ireland had a wild cat -thought I would point that out.

There is one thing that has niggled at my brain for a long time and that is how the appearance of the Mountain fox in particular varied from the others. My colleague LM even noted certain traits in appearance.  The Mountain fox filled the niche that the jackal does in Europe and the coyote in the Americas. Is there the possibility that the Mountain fox was not a fox but a jackal?  

Is it possible that the hunters and naturalist 'sportsmen' could have hunted a British type jackal and not realised it?

The answer to the latter question is simple: yes.The sheer ignorance amongst these people is almost unbelievable and it is all written down in black and white in the historical documents and books. We can now say that light coloured to white foxes were not under any circumstances "very rare" because 19th/early 20th century taxidermy provides many examples. Yet, back in the "golden age of hunting" (19th century) there would be furious arguments over there being white foxes. People were accused of telling tall stories of having hunted and killed one and some were even ostracised from some sporting groups because of the claim. In fact it is even written that some who had hunted (but had not realised until the kill) a white fox were flummoxed. They had killed the impossible and some of their pals even treated said kill to a tall story. White foxes were well known but 'experts' confirmed that they "did not exist".  

There are other examples of these 'expert sportsmen' getting fox behaviour and much more wrong. After all the only thing of importance was the chase, how long it lasted before the kill or the fox "went to earth" and escaped. 

One fox that had its ear clipped was sent to a hunt 80 miles away as a gift but later was found back in its former territory.  

Foxes "reach a ripe old age at five years" (if it survived that long. Yet we know from historical accounts and even today that some foxes live to 7, 8 or even 12 years of age if not hunted or killed by cars. 

We also know that one hunt chased after a particular "white fox" for years until one day it met its end. The head of this 'fox' (paraphrase slightly) "looked as though it had come from a wolf". A big 'fox' with a head of a wolf....hmm.

These hunts included reputable 'naturalists' who "knew their fox" and even though the Count Bouffon had carried out experiments long before these people still argued that a fox could interbreed with a domestic dog. Others argued no but each faction was willing to throw their 'evidence' out there.

The stupidity and outright ridiculous things that were claimed did not even really need modern science to prove but each person had their own views and theories and even into the 20th century would disagree and argue over the scientific classification of foxes and other animals.

These old duffers were told that there were three fox types and so dogma set in. If a noted fellow stated there were three fox variations (not species - and I'll not go into how nasty the arguments were on that when it was never claimed) then there were three varieties of fox. Even when prairie dogs/coyotes were released in the Epping Forest area for hunting those 'sportsmen' involved in the hunts wrote how big the mountain foxes were and a good chase. 

We know that there were three types of fox with the changes needed to adapt to their environments but the Mountain fox seems odd. Is it possible that I have been wrong and have just assumed that it was an Old fox because the records called it that?  I am quite willing to consider the idea that the Mountain fox was a jackal type canid but there is only one way to prove it: DNA testing.