A Few Words

 As I have noted before there is only one full time fox researcher (50 years) and only one body  (The British Fox (and Wild Canids) Study f 1976) looking at red foxes in the UK as well as the true history of foxes -looking at the Old foxes that became extinct.

Over the decades the work has cost me thousands but there is no real academic interest in foxes apart from the occasional very narrow scoped short term projects.   Basically, it is a lonely business that has very few collaborators.

Threats? Oh, those are standard if you are involved in wildlife work. When I was a UK police forces exotic wildlife consultant I got all kinds of threats. In recent years, due to the fox work, I have opened the front door to find a short hangman's noose on the door step (I still have that if the sender wants it back) . A decapitated pigeon and even decapitated rat.  The official problems from doing this work also mount up.

Over the decades I have applied for UK wildlife grants but was always told (if I insisted on a reason) "Foxes aren't covered". I tried EU grants -but they will not tell you why your application was a failure just who else got the grant. 

DNA work is the next step but whereas at least one UK university will examine material alleged to have come from "big cats" in the countryside, none will even consider DNA testing extinct fox and wild cat types. Which means DNA testing would need to be paid for and that is expensive and you need a lab that can access the data base needed to compare samples. 

Really, all of the archival research and documentation has been carried out so that there is absolutely no doubt that the British Isles had three distinct Old fox variants and with Ireland the same applies. However, if we want to correct the record and push aside over a century of dogma DNA is the final proof.

Sadly, I doubt we will ever see DNA testing.