There Really Must Be DNA Testing

 It took many years to acquire specimens of what were the last vestiges of Old British fox and Old wild cat. The Colquhoun Mountain/Greyhound fox is seen as the classic example and my colleague LM managed to acquire it through sheer luck.   Colquhoun, at the time a very noted naturalist-'sportsman' described the fox as being a perfect example of the species. It was killed during the 1830s -a period during with the three Old type foxes were heading intro extinction.

Placed next to a full grown coyote taxidermy specimen the fox stands much taller -all accounts and records note its large size and wild nature -similar foxes were imported from Norway in the late 19th century when it became extinct.

When the land bridge between Britain and Europe (Doggerland) was flooded 8-10,000 years ago all UK species became island species and developed into such and the wolf would have developed into a distinct sub species and was noted for being large rather than attaining island "dwarf" status. 

The fox developed for the terrains it was to fit into. The Common or Cur fox stayed close to human habitation and was known as the smallest of the species. The Hill or Mastiff fox was much larger and heavily built for the environment it inhabited and rarely ventured down into valleys unless its hunt for food required it to.

The Mountain or Greyhound fox moved through mountains, swamps, forests and was known for its strength, stamina and that meant a lot for hunts who relished the chase and endurance as much as the kill. Mountain foxes existed and were hunted to extinction on the island of Ireland and British mountain foxes were later sent as "gifts" to Irish hunts. The foxes of Ireland, itself separated from Britain when its land bridge  sank would also have been a specific sub-species.

Looking at all of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries archives by naturalists, 'sportsmen' and better known quadruped specialists the Old mountain fox filled the niche between wolves and the regular fox. A niche filled in the Americas by the coyote and in Europe and elsewhere the jackal.

There is little doubt that the Old British mountain fox was a fox -in the past before testing there were many often silly suggestions as to its origins- and that similar foxes existed in Western/Central Europe. The Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) gradually moving from the East into Europe along human migratory routes. Taxidermy specimens are rare to find due to age or lack of interest. No single museum in the United Kingdom or N. Ireland/Eire possess any specimens. I know because I communicated with each and every one of them and the oldest foxes they had were post 1900.  The Extinct Fox and Wild Cat Museum (EFWCM) has the largest collection including two foxes from the noted French naturalist Sarrazin -which may be either the first examples of old North American fox or specimens of Old European fox.  

Similarly, in the 1830s, Colquhoun also shot what are thought to have been the last pair of Old wild cats from Scotland before the European wild cat was introduced for hunting and then interbred with feral domestic cats. The Old wild cats were known in  as "The English Tiger" but after extinction that title moved north to be adopted for "the Highland Tiger" of Scotland. 

These cats were much bigger than the wild cats of today, were sandy/yellowish and had "tiger stripes" and were so powerful that hunters attached metal spiked leather collars to their hounds as hounds could be easily killed by the cats.  Human fatalities were also known as the cats gave no quarter when bordered or wounded.

The Colquhoun cats are probably the last of the genetic line and, again, there seems to be evidence that such cats existed in Western Europe (we know of a specimen at a museum in Ireland that looks to be Felis lybica in origin and was probably introduced there during the Iron Age).

Without going into overlong hypothesis the Old wild cat would be a distinct species that was killed off and later replaced by what we know as the European wild cat of today.  This makes sense since Ireland, Britain and Europe were once joined and animals roamed freely with no obstacles in their way.

What we do not have, because of the lack of museum specimens (there is an 1845 British fox in a Netherlands museum)  is any DNA test results because of that. DNA results could well re-write British, Irish and European natural history on these two species.

No labs seem interested in testing samples and such tests are beyond any finances we have.