Monday, 13 April 2026

Dog Foxes Are Loyal. Vixens Are More "Liberal"!

A long-term study led by Professor Stephen Harris and his team at the University of Bristol uncovered surprising behavioral patterns in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes).

After radio collar tracking urban fox populations for over 25 years, the research found that Dog foxes are remarkably loyal, often staying single for the rest of their lives if they lose their mate. This loyalty was thought to be linked to Dog fox role in raising offspring and maintaining territory stability.

Vixens, whose reproductive success depends on securing a mate each breeding season, tend to form new partnerships relatively quickly.

The study highlights the contrasting strategies between the dog fox and vixens: while males invest in long-term pair bonds and territorial defense, females prioritize reproductive timing and opportunity.

This research offers rare insight into the complex emotional and social dynamics of wild animals and challenges the assumption that monogamy is rare in mammals.

Polecats

UK polecat deaths are primarily caused by vehicle collisions, particularly during mating (Feb-Mar) and juvenile dispersal (Sep-Oct) seasons. Secondary rodenticide poisoning from eating contaminated rats is also a major threat, with a 2018 study showing 79% exposure. Despite this, populations are recovering from near-extinction.

Sarah Mills just reported a dead pole cat (photo) on the Bridgewater Road , near Hobbs Lane, Dundry, 12 04 2026

Google Search Blocks

All of my wildlife blogs including the UKNCA are not found in Google searches. Every other search engine has the blogs as well as Face Book pages and basic info.

So much for Google!

Bounties on Wildlife -Why Species Went Extinct

Although hunts play a major part in wildlife extinctions it is very unpopular to correct dogma. As I am not looking for popularity let me correct major dogma.

"It was the rich and upper classes that hunted and killed for fun and wiped out a lot of wildlife"

Well, to an extent but along with all the well to do men and women were the normal every day folk who may well have killed for 'fun' but the main intention was to earn "easy money". In The Red Papers I noted the various bounties paid for killing foxes, badgers, otters and so on and these were bounties paid out all over the country. In The Scottish Annals of Natural History (1895) Vol 15 page 193:

Yes, everything could be killed including house (pet) cats and before anyone thinks that would be a rarity well 6d back then bought a lot and if you didn't like next door's moggy and you saw it walking about...easy pickings. Game keepers, of course, relished shooting anything but pet cats and pet dogs were included (there is a black joke, albeit factual, that gamekeepers always had great fruit and vegetable crops because of the "fertilizer" -cats and dogs they had shot).

So do not just blame organised and casual hunting for 'fun' but remember everyday ordinary folk killed off wildlife for fun and profit, too (motorists today kill off thousands of foxes, badgers,m otters, cats, dogs, deer and other species without even giving it a second thought so not much changes).

We NEED Badger Post Mortems

We have a big problem when it comes to badgers reported dead within the BBG area. How did they die?

Back in 2020 a call went out about a badger found dead in some undergrowth in a part of East Bristol. There was a search and the badger was found and a quick check revealed a number of breaks in its body. A few days previously there had been severe weather -gale force wind and rain; this badger was at the bottom of some cliffs. Everything looked consistent with the badger having fallen for some reason from a height.

We have had badgers found in or near parks but a fair distance from roads but those roads were close enough. As with foxes we have found that a badger hit by a car will follow a path back towards its sett area before internal injuries kick in.

At one point in two areas unusual blue pellets were found -one lot in a food dish on a street frequented by badger5s and foxes. The other pile of pellets was found in a Bristol park where three badgers had died some distance from a road.

The material was reported to Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire both authorities were disinterested. From one source (Friends of Eastville Park) I tried repeatedly to get samples of the blue material to pass on to the Wildlife Incident Investigation Service and DEFRA for analysis. I was told several times that they would wait for the City Council to decide what action to take and despite my stating BCC had said it had no interest the group refused to give up samples. Slug pellets, poison -we have no idea because no one was interested. Even a badger stool sample and fox stool sample with the blue material in them were handed in to the establishment that carried out our fox necropsies) : not even checked.

When I broached the subject of badger necropsies with Langford Veterinary School I was told that "we are not allowed by the Health and Safety Executive to carry out badger post mortems" -the reason given was the "possible risk of bovine TB".

After severing ties with Langford I discovered that badger post mortems were being carried out there; I had been told a lie from the outset.

The head of the old Avon Badger Group conducted his own post mortem examinations in the garden but Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre and Avon Wildlife Trust who had copies of the ABG records will not allow access. The only remaining member of the old group I found has stated that all her data will "proudly go to the grave with me" so all of that data is gone.

PMs on badgers are carried out in Wales.

Why is it important to carry out badger PMs in the region? Firstly, it tells us what the overall health of the population is, Secondly it will give a lot of information on parasites and other issues faced by badgers. Thirdly, it would give a proven cause of death.

Despite what people believe there are still local "badger men" who get paid by farmers or landowners to "deal (kill) with badgers" . People involved in badger baiting (yes, it still goes on) as well as people using snares often try to hide what they have been up to by dumping dead badgers by the roadside. People tend to treat dead animals by the side of the road as nothing and certainly do not check or ask questions -far enough into the road cars soon take care of any evidence.

In our area we have had two cases of foxes snared but "dying from car strike" (we assume). We have had an otter snared and then dumped into the road to cover tracks. Dumping badgers into the road to stop questions being asked is an old trick -taxidermists buy road kill badgers and the seller has a photo of the badger in front of the car or on the roadside as "proof" of how it died. I got removed from two taxidermy groups after asking what area was having 4-6 badgers killed a week on what seemed a quiet country lane as the local badger group might want to check. Photo of the dead badger for sale in front of a parked up car.

Now we simply list as (possible) RTA if badgers are found by the road and simply as "dead" because no examination has taken place.

It would be good to get badger post mortems carried out but with no funds or even qualified vets willing to do the work we are just left with a lot of "dead" badgers.

Not All Badger Deaths are Deliberate (graphic images)

Netting whether for school or home goal posts, etc., claim a lot of wildlife lives. Other more mundane items also claim lives.

Sarah Mills answered a call this morning and found this scene of a young badger trapped in a fancy drive gateway. You can see from its injuries that it struggled. It would have made a lot of noise as it struggled but no one heard or saw anything.

Drive and garden gates need to be set at least 9 inches above the ground to allow squeeze through space.

Angering and saddening that this young badger met it end this way.

Comparing stats up to 12 04 between 2022-2026

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/bristol-fox-and-badger-death-registers-2022-2025/paperback/product-7k6kdre.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Badger deaths up to this date in

2022 10

2023 13

2024 13

2025 31

2026 40

as reporting gotten 'better' the number has increased. Statistically that would mean this year up to today, deaths would be around 100+

All stats are published online at the blog and hard copies can be purchased to help fund the work although neither the fox or badger death registers or published stats have attracted any comment or attention.

This is the last year I do this.

Was Mange Deliberately Spread in Bristol in 1994/1995?

Bristol University has again refused to respond on this matter. 13 04 2026

To start with; this is not an accusation but notes on rumours Bristol University will not respond to.

I have repeatedly asked Bristol University for access to its now defunct mammal group (led by Prof. Stephen Harris) papers on foxes. I either get silence or am told that I do not qualify for such access. The British Fox Study started in 1976 and continues today which, obviously, is far longer than the Bristol Uni study.

Most of the old Uni study data featured in books by Prof. Harris but a great deal remains archived (IF we believe what has been written).

Who funds Bristol University ?

UK Government & Research Councils: Funding for research and infrastructure comes through bodies like the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), and Research England.
Tuition Fees: Income from UK and international student fees, managed through student finance systems.
Endowments & Donations: The university holds numerous endowment funds established by benefactors, which are invested ethically to support research and scholarships. Approximately £70m held in endowments.
Alumni & Philanthropy: Support for research and entrepreneurship is provided by donations from alumni and friends.
Industry Partners: Research grants and collaborations with external commercial organizations.

My interest lies in the fact that over a period of 10 years I have received emails/messages from

people who worked at or were connected with Bristol University. Each one notes that "it was

claimed" that the mammal study introduced mange (which killed approximately 95% of the Bristol

urban fox population.

The Mammal Group noted that for an "unknown reason" one of their radio collared study foxes

suddenly left the City. And "suddenly" it re-appeared and had mange which was studied as it

spread throughout the fox population. Each of the people who contacted me stated that this was work

funded by a UK government office to see how fast a disease/virus *such as rabies) could spread

throughout urban fox populations.

I asked Bristol University to refute the claim and release any data gathered on such a major

outbreak that almost wiped out foxes in the City. They have refused on every occasion which,

obviously, means that the rumours and suspicions continue.

WHY the silence?

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius infection

In the paper Staphylococcus pseudintermedius infection Pyometra bij een vos (Vulpes vulpes) veroorzaakt door een infectie met Staphylococcus pseudintermedius; Dierengezondheidszorg Vlaan in Red Foxesderen (DGZ), Industrielaan 29, B-8820 Torhout Stefan.Roels@sciensano.be, submitted by N. Caliskan, A. Vandekerckhove, E. Rolly, E. Forrez, S. Roels, it is noted that:

"An adult female fox found dead in a field in Flanders (Belgium) was brought in for autopsy. The uterus was remarkably enlarged with dilation of the right horn tip and dilations of the myometrium of the left horn. The lumen of the uterus was filled with greenish-yellow pasty contents. Bacteriological examination of these contents resulted in a pure culture of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius.

"The diagnosis of pyometra caused by S. pseudintermedius was made. Pyometra in wild canids has rarely been described. It is assumed that the cause of death is similar to that in dogs, namely septic shock. According to the authors, this is the first described case of closed pyometra with isolation of S. pseudointermedius in an adult fox".

Before it was officially suppressed, the Bristol Fox Deaths Project founas d a number of never before noted health issues with foxes. Pyometra was not one of them although I suspected a case in the Midlands in 2021 may have been. Others we can only look back on and wonder whether they were pyometra cases. No study similar to that in Bristol had ever been undertaken in the UK -a dead fox was a dead fox and held no interest for vets as it was after all a wild animal with no one footing the bill for a necropsy.

Looking back at my notes it is possible that there were other cases but not sub mitted for necropsy as no one was available to collect.

It now appears, if the vet is correct, that we have such a case from Bristol. Fox health and welfare is still in early stages but there is hope!

Ljungan Virus and Foxes

Ljungan Virus is quite "a thing" at the moment with a lot of research being carried out -not for wildlife health but human -that attracts the money.

With our necropsy study we found that babesia and leptospirosis were heavy hitters amongst foxes so it only makes sense that as foxes main prey are rodents such as rats, voles, etc I at least mention the topic (it has been noted in Red Foxes but sadly the UK is far from open when it comes to research papers -unlike the US or Europe.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljungan_virus

Ljungan virus was first discovered in the mid-1990s after being isolated from a bank vole near the Ljungan river in Medelpad county, Sweden.^[2] It has since been established that Ljungan virus, which is also found in several places in Europe and America, causes serious illness in wild as well as laboratory animals.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Several scientific articles have recently reported findings indicating that Ljungan virus is associated with malformations, intrauterine fetal death, and sudden infant death syndrome in humans.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] In addition, studies are being conducted worldwide to investigate the possible connection of the virus to diabetes, neurological and other illnesses in humans.^[11]^[12]

Ljungan virus belongs to the genus Parechovirus of the family Picornaviridae. Other members of this viral family include poliovirus, Hepatitis A virus, and the viruses that cause the common cold (rhinovirus).^[13] One of the earliest scientific discoveries regarding Ljungan virus was that infected wild rodents developed diabetes if they were exposed to stress.^[14] This has led to speculation that this disease may be the underlying cause of fluctuating rodent populations in Scandinavia; when rodents increase to high densities, they find it difficult to defend territory and obtain food, and then become more susceptible to predation. This stressful situation results in disease, death and population decline, leading to a pattern of cyclic variation in population size over time.^[4]

There was a 2014 paper (see abstract below)

Ljungan virus is endemic in rodents in the UK

Anne-Marie Salisbury 1, Michael Begon, Winifred Dove, Bo Niklasson, James P Stewart

. 2014 Mar;159(3):547-51.

doi: 10.1007/s00705-013-1731-6. Epub 2013 May 12.

abstract

"Ljungan virus is a recently identified member of the family Picornaviridae that was isolated from bank voles in Sweden. LjV has been associated with [corrected] type 1 diabetes-like symptoms and myocarditis in bank voles (Myodes glareolus), and it has been suggested that it has zoonotic potential.

"Here, we show for the first time that Ljungan virus is prevalent (20-27 % positive by PCR) in four species of UK rodent (Myodes glareolus [bank vole], Apodemus sylvaticus [wood mouse], Microtus agrestis [field vole] and Mus musculus [house mouse]).

"Sequence analysis showed that Ljungan virus of genotypes 1 and 2 were present, although genotype 1 was more prevalent and more frequently associated with brain tissue.

"This study highlights the prevalence of Ljungan virus in the UK and the need for assessment [corrected] of its zoonotic potential."

Leptospirosis and Foxes

Abstract from Acute lethal leptospirosis in a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) Journal of Comparative Pathology Volume 201, February 2023, Pages 77-80

Leptospirosis, caused by pathogenic spirochaetes belonging to the genus Leptospira, is a globally distributed zoonosis that can affect many species of domestic and wild animals, and humans. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a native species in Croatia and, due to constant food availability and lack of interspecies competition, is becoming more abundant in urban and suburban areas.

Although antibodies for Leptospira spp have been detected in red foxes, lethal disease has not been reported. We necropsied a young, male red fox that had jaundice, multifocal haemorrhages in the heart, lungs and urinary bladder, hepatomegaly, non congestive splenomegaly and slight yellow discolouration of the renal cortex and medulla. Histology revealed multifocal haemorrhages in parenchymal organs, thrombi within lung septal capillaries and other blood vessels, interstitial lymphocytic and plasmacytic nephritis and erosions of the gastric mucosa.

A microscopic agglutination test on the post-mortem cardiac blood clot revealed a high titre to Leptospira interrogans serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae, which implies contact with rats, which are natural reservoirs of this serovar in Croatia.

The gross and histological findings in this fox were similar to those in dogs with leptospirosis, indicating that fatal leptospirosis can occur in foxes and suggesting that this species can act as a source of infection for other animals and humans.

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