Appeals to DNA Labs

This is a  copy  of an email sent to an English University I had worked with in the 1990s/2000s. I had hoped to appeal to the scientific interest....but failed!

Similar letters and emails were sent to other DNA labs with no result.

 Hello.

I am writing to both of you regarding DNA work on Old fox types.

I have attached a document that explains the historical research as well as acquisition of both (extinct) Old fox and Old wild cat types that became extinct circa the 1860s. These were acquired by Mrs Louise Milligan of the Linnean Society.

Back in the 1990s your lab offered to look at samples of alleged “big cat” evidence from the UK to test in “free time” and, sadly, with no central coordination of the samples  everything from sheep, horse and cow hair was submitted.   It was all rather spurious and it taught lessons regarding samples gathered.

You will see via the attached document that foxes were imported from Europe in the thousands each year to “replenish hunting stock” and by the 1860s the Old type of British fox was made extinct but we were lucky to acquire a famous historical fox thought to have been lost decades ago; the Colquhoun “Mountain fox” killed circa 1834.  We also managed to acquire two of the last Old wild cats -again shot by Colquhoun and, again, circa 1830s.  We are aware of other (fox) specimens including one from 1843 held at the Rotterdam Museum and a couple of rare Old wild cats at other locations.

Our assumption has always been that the Old type foxes were not what is classified as Vulpes vulpes but a type of fox that existed in Western Europe until the Doggerland area was flooded and the Old type continued in Britain while the European types were eventually replaced by red foxes. When the land between England and Ireland sank its foxes also continued on until extinction.

The question is whether the Old foxes were a species other than V. vulpes or a distinct sub-species? The same applies to the island isolated Old wild cats of which there seem to be skin samples in the Irish Museum.

There has never been any work of this type carried out in the UK or Europe since modern naturalists and zoologists have mostly not heard of the Old type animals and I was at first sceptical but after over 40 years of research and gathering historical records and descriptions as well as historical depictions of Old foxes there is no doubt that they did exist and were described by naturalists and zoologists as well as hunting books (18th-early 20th centuries). The question, as I state, is whether these were a unique species or not.

For DNA testing there is no funding available, rather as with most fox work, so I am contacting labs that might offer an opportunity even as student training.  A long shot but there are no other options available.

My thanks for taking the time to read this whatever your decision.

Sincerely,