Have I Wasted My Life?

 

I just posted (see last post) a video re a fox mating call. Although the original Face Book poster who posted her night time video states the You Tube video matches what she recorded....someone jumped in to say "it sounds territorial".

Well, what do I know!

I started studying foxes in 1974 but did a LOT of research before deciding to officially set up a study. This is why I often state that I started in 1974 or 1976.  At that time I thought to myself "I'll do this 10 years and that'll be it" -10 years when you are young is a very, very long time. Now, 51 years on I am still at it.  51 years and I managed to discover the true history of the Old British foxes before they became extinct and the New foxes took over. I have even mapped out the true history of Old wild cats.

Add to that, and it took some years, I did what naturalists and museums in Hong Kong had been unable to; I identified the type of fox that existed there before they became extinct.

Studying extinct canid species has been another long term avenue of research and I have specialised in looking at jackals (once a mystery animal in the UK but as I highlighted in my books these were released for hunting in the UK) as well as wolves and coyotes that at one point were common knowledge but post 1900 dogma and not wanting to carry out archival research has meant that knowledge was lost.

I helped to identify an animal as a wolf in Germany in the early 2000s -none had been recorded in that particular region for over a century.

I looked at the "mysterious" Great Dog of Ennerdale and that lead to a whole new aspect of research and finding out that, although originally all were domestic animals, wild dogs were not uncommon up to the 1930s.

Wildlife health and conservation has always been a priority as has education on foxes and wildlife in general.  With foxes this led to the study of dead foxes in Bristol and the final report that I put together being officially suppressed and threats against me with the approval of official bodies.

My work to stop badger setts being destroyed with local authority approval has also caused me major problems. As a naturalist you do not earn money but you do get a LOT of enemies😄

In the UK there is no real interest in wildlife unless there is money in it -or a lot of personal publicity. Over 50 years experience and field work on canids, felids, mustelids and others and it is, apparently, of no interest or use.