Is "Re-Introduction" a Good Idea?

  It is a FACT that English, Welsh and Scottish wild cats were hunted to extinction. At a meeting of Scottish zoologists in 1898 one of the speakers was a man who had studied Scottish wild cats for 40 years. He declared that the wild cat had become extinct decades before and the 1860s was decided and agreed upon.

What you see in museums are not wild cats but hybrids of European wild cats. What are being financed and released are nothing more than hybrid European wild cats.

These cats are raised wild before release, but face the same threats such as cars or shooting and trapping on estates. They cannot be guarded 24/7 and you can bet the odd shooter who considers his/herself a 'sports' person is going to be out looking for one. The shooting community long ago share locations of where the releases would take place.

They want to introduce lynx and wolves back to Scotland and while lynx have survived in Scotland and even England in recent times (officially 1920s-1930s) they were all shot. Back in the 1990s an escaped arctic fox was shot by a farmer because "it looked unusual". Same decade in Shropshire a moron farmer shot an escaped ring tailed lemur because "it was an unusual animal"

There are far too many people in the UK who love to go out with rifles (often in groups) to shoot whatever they can find for 'fun' and they could not care less that the fox population has dropped by 60% -the old hunts had the same view: "We MUST have our sport".

The law states that a fox can be "dealt with" if a threat to livestock. Foxes in urban areas hunting rats and similar are no threat but who cares? We do know that in some areas off duty police officers take part in the 'sport' when they should be stopping it as unnecessary killing of wildlife (not to mention pets and the occasional live stock).

As I have gotten older so my stance has changed. The UK is not an animal loving set of countries and government legislation as well as local authorities do all they can to allow developers to destroy habitat while not caring about the mass of wildlife shot or killed by cars.

I would NEVER support the introduction of any species to replace one humans have made extinct. History has shown those species would only be targeted again.

Extinction is forever

There Is Only ONE UK Fox Study Started in 1976

 

Yes, I run the British Fox and Wild Canids Study (f 1976) and it is the only organisation in the UK working permanently on (specifically) Fox history, welfare and conservation.

I run and do most of the workj with occasional research volunteers. Why not more people involved?

There is absolutely no funding for such a study in the UK where species, even supposedly protected ones, are considered expendable and an annoyance to developers.

I bankrupted myself carrying out this work but what has been learnt was forgotten. Lost. I would very much like to do more such as DNA testing on Old Fox and Old wild cat species -those hunting drive into extinction in the mid 18th century- but no funding makes this difficult.

Do others with an interest in fox species (in other countries) find no real interest?

Ja, ich leite die British Fox and Wild Canids Study (gegr. 1976), die einzige Organisation in Großbritannien, die sich dauerhaft mit der Geschichte, dem Wohlergehen und dem Schutz von Füchsen befasst.

Ich leite die Studie und erledige den Großteil der Arbeit, gelegentlich unterstützt von ehrenamtlichen Forschern. Warum engagieren sich nicht mehr Menschen?

In Großbritannien gibt es keinerlei Fördermittel für solche Studien. Arten, selbst vermeintlich geschützte, gelten dort als entbehrlich und als Ärgernis für Bauherren.

Ich habe mich durch diese Arbeit ruiniert, doch die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sind in Vergessenheit geraten. Verloren. Ich würde sehr gerne weitere Studien durchführen, beispielsweise DNA-Tests an alten Fuchs- und Wildkatzenarten – jenen, die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts durch die Jagd ausgerottet wurden –, aber die fehlende Finanzierung macht dies unmöglich.

Finden andere, die sich für Fuchsarten interessieren (in anderen Ländern), ebenfalls wenig Unterstützung?

Oui, je dirige l'Étude britannique sur le renard et les canidés sauvages (fondée en 1976), la seule organisation au Royaume-Uni qui travaille en permanence sur l'histoire, le bien-être et la conservation du renard.

Je dirige l'organisation et effectue la majeure partie du travail, avec l'aide ponctuelle de bénévoles chercheurs. Pourquoi ne pas impliquer davantage de personnes ?

Au Royaume-Uni, ce type d'étude ne bénéficie d'aucun financement. Les espèces, même celles censées être protégées, y sont considérées comme superflues et gênantes pour les promoteurs immobiliers.

J'ai ruiné ce travail, et les connaissances acquises ont été oubliées. Perdues. J'aimerais beaucoup approfondir la question, notamment en réalisant des tests ADN sur les anciennes espèces de renards et de chats sauvages – celles qui ont disparu à cause de la chasse au milieu du XVIIIe siècle – mais l'absence de financement rend cela difficile.

D'autres personnes s'intéressant aux espèces de renards (dans d'autres pays) ne constatent-elles aucun intérêt réel ?

Large Cats Killing Sheep Is Far From A Modern Occurrence.

  

For my research work -whether canids or felids- I have read hundreds of newspaper archive reports and I have the eye strain to prove it.  During my work as a consultant to UK police forces (1977-2018) or even working with farmers groups I was always able to tell a sheep that was victim of a dog attack. Canids attack a certain way and are messy and when more than one dog is involved they are noisy. 

I never once heard "it was a pack of dogs killed it and only 100 yards from the house!" and believed it. The sheep never made a distress noise? The excited dogs never yapped or barked and all within 100 yards of a house in which sat four people having coffee with the kitchen door open as it was a warm night?

A point needs to be made that farmers know they are not going to get any insurance money for a dead sheep if they say "It was killed by a panther/puma". They may have seen the cat around and I know at least two insurance agents as well as members of the National Farmers Union who have sighted a large cat on a property. The kill may be very cat-like BUT who are you going to call in to prove it? How much will it cost? And as insurers do not recognise "big cat attack" as being covered by a policy a farmer would lose out.  One farmer told me in the 1990s that his insurance agent knew it was a large cat that attacked and killed and then consumed some of it but he gave the farmer a knowing wink and completed the insurance paperwork: "Yes, definitely a sheep savaged and killed by a dog, right?" Was that true? I eventually learnt that it was and that it happened in other parts of the country -it was 'dog attack' and get compensation or insist it was a big cat and get none.

One farmer in the 1990s (in Wales) had a flock of "common old sheep" but had also invested in a flock of expensive (apologies if I get this wrong as sheep are not my speciality -and a Google search had AI respond that it was an outdated racist practice!) black faced sheep (Surrey?). It was always the expensive black-faced sheep the puma took and he knew that he would get no compensation.

People calling themselves 'experts' (after 50 years I would not even call myself an expert!) will tell everyone that a cat (leopard or puma) will simply select a sheep and kill it. Anything involving more than one dead sheep would be dogs or "some mystery animal".  Large cats can and do kill more than they can eat -possibly due to starvation/lack of wild prey (instinct is to kill and have a cache of food for later). China TV on 16th  February, 2017 showed footage of a snow leopard that entered a sheep pen and killed  38 sheep and days later another killed 13 goats. Leopards and even puma have been known to do likewise.

For these reasons every report is read to ascertain whether how sheep were killed is mentioned. Faces bitten, torn and so on is usually a good indicator of a canid -a fox is a domestic cat sized animal and despite what hunts want you to believe they do not take down sheep.

If you look at this report  out of 900 sheep 15 were killed or injured out and "what looked like a large black 'dog'" was sighted and shot at -there was a similar event of sheep killed by a mystery "black animal" at Edale in Derbyshire in the 1920s. The method of kill etc was typical of a leopard (Red Paper 2022 Vol. II: Felidae) .  This is from Mearns Leader - Friday 02 August 1946

Interesting in that there are parallels with Bodmin in the 1980s in this article from the  Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian - Saturday 17 August 1912. One of the Royal Marines dug in watching a field of sheep told me he and his pal had a boring night but after dawn when they stood up and turned around some hundred yards away was a sheep that had been killed and partly eaten. They had heard nothing.

The "shoulder and the throat have been "pulled out" which almost sounds like a leopard Leicester Evening Mail - Monday 05 February 1934

Sadly, it is far too long ago to look for new details -or any witnesses!  No report of a post mortem examination (it should be noted that few farmers can afford to pay for PMEs and that official PM services will not touch any such animals and when they do "it is always dog" (the veterinary pathologist added: "it may have all the hall marks of a cat kill and a large cat may have been seen but it is still a dog attack!").

The below photo shows the throat wound and how the shoulder of this sheep (in Africa) has been ripped completely away.  I knew two zoologists who wanted to see whether they (combined) could rip off a sheep's leg. They found that even after they "partially butchered" it they could not tear the leg off).

As for where these cats might come from; looking at a map it is quite clear that a lot of historical/modern cat territories are centred in old hunting territory or near to stately homes. We also know that a lot of hunt masters released (it is on the public record) jackals, wolves and coyotes to hunt in England and Wales. In fact, in the mid 1800s one Devon Hunt Master had to stop the release of a wolf to hunt after local protest -whether the wolf was released anyway we have no idea. "Local dignitaries" had a great deal covered up by fawning newspaper editors. 

We also know that anyone who wanted to could keep an exotic pet and this went on for hundreds of years until the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 (the false "mass release" date for exotics so often quoted by people who have no idea).  There were private menageries in back gardens, private estates and even the odd railway station. In the Red Paper 2022: Felidae and the self contained Red Paper 2025 Wild Menagerie -Britain's New Native Species I include a report from a magazine in the 1920s that I came across quite by accident on a Surrey Puma escape.

Hunts or estate menagerie/exotic pet escapes -a lot of choice and when you consider how common escapes of animals including wolves, gorillas, kangaroos et al were from travelling menageries and even how such animals simply vanished as the travelling shows closed down there is even more choice!

It's The Wolf...or The Jackal...or...

 

This first report is interesting. If you have read The Red Paper 2022: Canidae then you would have read of the well documented cases of wolves being encountered in the early 20th century. A "very large white animal" seen bounding off is nothing new and we have documented wolf cases from Wales, the North of England and even some areas of SE England.

The form of attack is consistent with a canid.

North Wales Weekly News - Thursday 13 January 1949

*********************************************

Here is another seeming canid attacking sheep and during the early 1900s there were a number of well documented jackal cases -for which there is photographic record.

Illustrated Police Budget - Saturday 30 December 1905 Note how they dismiss one of the well documented 1904 jackal cases as "a dog". At times the Press almost act like they were covering up in local areas -wonder for whom?

We know, because it is well documented, that hunts had members trying to breed the "perfect" hunt canid. Attempts to cross jackals with foxes, jackals with wolves and wolf-coyote/wolf-jackal. It was all about getting an animal with the stamina for a long chase as well as one that would "put up a good show at the end" (fight back when cornered by hounds).

Escapes from travelling menageries and even private (static) menageries were not unusual. Big estates had their private collections. Animals getting too large and wild to keep were very likely dumped. Again, hunts released jackals and even set up dens for wolves to provide "better sport" -all fully documented.

The one thing that I have learnt from the work between 1976 to date is that for centuries wild canids (of various types) as well as large cats have lived and bred in the British countryside and the fascinating thing is that even when perfectly describing a black leopard the witness and others report it as a "Hell"/"Devil" hound of local lore-in one case it 'was' the spirit that escaped from a coffin that was dropped head first -hence the spirit escaping and being seen as a 'black hound'!

Equally fascinating is that none of these animals has had a negative impact on "native" wildlife and there have certainly never been any attacks on humans in the wild.

Bristol Otter Pup Rescued

 

Full story here  https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2025-12-03/lone-otter-cub-rescued-from-beside-the-bristol-canal?fbclid=IwY2xjawOdQ45leHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeD-b_U9mfgmJJuoouIPDOTs-jzLz444AiVBFfClZxzEecljvz1J4k8VX6IU8_aem_2DJIeFWs23n-5iQ3geFdxw

I was asked but suggested Otter Trust as Bristol Otter Group I do not think exist any more -certainly ignored a request to put in some comments re building on the outskirts of Bristol where we know otters are.

A vulnerable otter cub found alone by a Bristol canal has been saved by an animal charity.

A local barge owner had heard her repeated crying and found the female cub by the water’s edge with no sign of its mother. 

The UK Wild Otter Trust say she was cold, underweight and distressed when they arrived at the Bristol Feeder Canal. 

She has been named Avon and is thought to be 6-7 weeks old. 

Eurasian otter cubs typically remain with their mothers for a year. 

Dave Webb, founder of the trust, said her chances of survival alone would have been very slim: “Avon was extremely vulnerable when she reached us. 

“At her age, otter cubs depend entirely on their mothers for warmth and feeding, so being alone on the canal bank was life-threatening. 

“Thankfully, she’s already feeding well and showing signs of strength.

“It’s always heartbreaking when a cub becomes separated this young, but the progress Avon is making is wonderful to see. 

“She’ll stay with us until she’s grown and fully ready for release back into the wild.”