A Name Change Does Not Mean Less Fox Work

 

As readers of this blog will know I set up the British Fox Study in 1976 but since that time not all of the work has involved foxes in the UK. 

A lot of the work has involved jackals which, due to many old "mystery animal" reports dating back to the 1970s and my late friend Franklyn A. Davin-Wilson introducing me to Charles Fort's "Killer canids of Cavan" and "The Badminton Sheep killer" became suspects. In fact as was proven in The Red Paper Canids (2010) and in far more detail in The Red Paper 2022 Vol. I: Canids, the 'mystery' of why there were so many jackal incidents in the UK was solved.

Along the way I also solved the mystery of wolf incidents in the UK -far more than even the fantasy prone cryptozoological fringe might think. And what of coyotes? Again there are claims in certain cases that do not match up with the facts but going back to newspaper and other publications of the period (believe me after 6-7 hours of newspaper archive searching you know what "archive blindness" means!)

I have also looked at and written as well as advised on canids outside the UK. Back in the mid 2000s I was asked whether I could identify the canids in two photographs from Germany (it seems experts there were not willing to 'guess' even though it was quite clear the canids shown were a malamute in one case and wolf in another).

I have also dealt with officials over "giant wolf" incidents in the United States and the "coywolf" situation (I am not going to call it a problem).

Looking at the origins of canid species as well as how they were made extinct by humans whether in Japan, Falkland Islands or elsewhere has also taken up a lot of time and work and trying to make it clear that wolf, coyote and foxes as well as other canids cannot continue under relentless hunting for 'fun' and 'pleasure'  has made me a few enemies (I do not lie awake at night crying over that) . 

The current lie used by hunters in the United States is that wolves "are killing all the deer. Deer populations are practically wiped out by them".  Firstly, wolves like other predators kill for food not 'fun' despite the unsubstantiated claims pro-hunt folk put out. Why are deer dropping in number? Illegal hunting as well as over hunting by humans who often brag how many deer they have 'harvested' and the thinking is so poor that they fail, like all hunters before them, to realise that if you shoot the breeding females as well as breeding males in one area then there are fewer to breed and so populations drop. One 'hunter' declared that there were no deer left in his area "damn wolves have wiped them out" and someone commented "I'm a mile up the road we have plenty of deer"

Throughout history we have seen the Hokkaido wolf killed off "just in case it killed sheep" (which it wasn't) and the Falklands wolf wiped out for the same reason. The thylacine was also wiped out for that reason -people certainly enjoyed the bounties paid for killing the animals.  Now hunters and farmers (the latter getting compensation) want to reverse the entire revival of wolves in the United States and Europe along with "in the pocket" politicians. No efforts to bring in wolf deterrent dogs or other anti wolf protection for livestock (which involves spending money -you can make money by killing wolves).

The need to educate on wild canids is there and I try as best I can even if on some days I feel that all efforts are wasted.

For foxes the need to educate people is even greater with problems from feeders as well as people who have misconceptions about foxes -they DO NOT kill cats and the fox moving young from one den to another often create reports of foxes carrying dead cats they have killed! Looking at the causes of fox deaths from illness as well as by cars -it is all crossing over with other work -wolves, coyotes and jackals are also killed in car strikes and my other specialised area of research, wild felids, has shown me that puma, lynx and other wild cats are also suffering the same fate.

The "Fox" part of the Study title is a little misleading so I have decided that it needs to be brought up to date after over four decades. The new title is The Fox and Wild Canids Study. That new name means that readers are not going to look at a post on wolves and ask "I thought this blog was about foxes?"