What Is A NARF?

  Back in the 1950s the "big money earner" was going to be fox fur farms. In fact they were being set up back in the 19th century as commercial ventures.

Not very sanitary, often cruel 'entrepreneurs' found things were not as promised. Throughout the early to mid 1950s the fur farms folded. Was there massive blood letting as the unprofitable foxes were all killed? 

The easiest way of getting rid of "stock" you did not want anymore was to just release them. No legislative control over releasing foxes and some land owners probably saw the extra foxes as more 'sporting fun'.

Did these North American Red Foxes (NARF) interbreed with new native Red foxes? Probably. I have shown before photos of over large foxes from parts of the UK that had traits of the NARF. Now of course we have the breeding and escaping Silver fox interbreeding with the Red fox.

What is the size difference between a bred for sale NARF and Red fox? I think the photo below demonstrates that. This image goes back 6 or 7 years and I believe is from a keeper.

(c)2026 respective copyright owner

"Why does this fox have no tail?"

 

 I was  once asked "how did the poor thing lose its tail?" when I posted this image.

The thing is that the fox had a perfectly fine tail but like many foxes was in the habit of curling its tail around one side. To prove the point here is the fox above about one minute later.  Incidentally, the colouration indicates that it has melanism in its make up and this is becoming more common with grey and black coloured foxes being reported.

A few years back (2020/2021?) I was sent a clip and some photos of a fox with no tail. With foxes you expect a quarter or half a tail missing occasionally as they are not fast enough to avoid a car tyre. However, in this particular case the tail was gone.  We call the bones that connect a fox's tail to its body are the caudal vertebrae; these vertebrae are the  direct extensions of the spine, starting from the sacrum (the base of the spine near the hips) and extending down to the tip of the tail. 

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner. A completely tail-less fox.

Foxes can lose parts of tails from cars driving over them, having them caught in something resulting in tail loss or even by having tails caught in a snare and amputating it.

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner; a slight stump can be seen

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner

When I was shown the photographs of the tail-less fox my first thought was that, being that close to the back and so cleanly done that it may have been removed by a veterinary surgeon. There were problems in that vets rarely want to treat a fox let alone amputate a tail and keep it confined until healed.  I could find no vets who had operated on a fox nor any fox released by a wildlife rescue that had had its tail removed.

Above (c)2026 respective copyright owner; a fox with a more prominent stub from its missing tail.

Of course, the photographer then noted the fox had always been like this so it had not had a tail -so why ask me if I could explain why its tail was gone?- and had not disappeared for any length of time as per it being trapped, operated on, recovering and then being released. Even now there are people stating "their" fox needs help as it has no tail and want it trapped and treated.

Looking at the photographs available (and we have a large photo image catalogue) it becomes clear that there is a very simple explanation -over-grooming by the mother when the fox was a cub.  A friend of my grand mothers had a dog with no tail and I asked when it had been removed? I was told "the mother did it" and it was explained that the bitch had over-groomed her pups so much the tails came off. I have found similar with domestic cats 

"Excessive maternal behaviour" or "Mismothering" is well known in cats and dogs. That the foxes in question are all fit and healthy and the caudal vertebrae so clean and hair covered seems to indicate the tail loss occurred during its pup stage.

After decades you find that the 'experts' tend to ignore the basics.

The Red Paper 2022 Volume II: Wild Cats, Feral and New Native Species

 Decades of unique research please note the price will increase later in March.

226 pp

Paperback

Interior Color and Black and white

Dimensions  A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm)

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/the-red-paper-2022-volume-2-felids/paperback/product-n48529.html?

£25.00

In 1896 Scottish naturalists and zoologists declared that the true Scottish wild cat had become extinct by the 1860s. What we see today is nothing more than a wild tabby cat. In this work the true history and destruction of wild cats from England, Wales (where hybrids clung on into the 1940s) and Scotland is explored and after decades of research the true look of the wild cat is revealed. The "English Tiger" and "Highland Tiger" truly lived up to that name.

Dogma is finally thrown out.

There is also a look at the "New Native Cats" ranging from Asian Golden Cats, Lynx, Puma and others and the evidence leading to their being so designated.

No silly press or media stories just solid facts backed up by evidence.

The author acted as an exotic species wildlife consultant to UK police forces from 1977-2015 as well as cooperated with university projects on the subject.

Island cats as well as feral cats their lifestyles and problems mare also covered .

Fully referenced and including maps, illustrations and very rare photographs -some never before seen in print- make this a book for amateur naturalists and zoologists.

The Red Paper 2022 Volume I: Foxes, Jackals, Wolves, Coyotes and Wild Dogs of the United Kingdom and Ireland

 Over 45 years of ongoing research the cover price has been kept low but will increase later this month to £30

361 pp

Paperback

Interior Color & Black and white

Dimensions A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm

£25.00

https://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper/the-red-paper-2022-volume-1-canids/paperback/product-r97ywj.html?

 When the Doggerland bridge flooded the British Isles became separated from

Continental Europe and its wildlife developed uniquely. The British Isles, for the purpose of this work includes Ireland, and isolated the wolves on both became what would be island species not affected by the usual island dwarfism. These wolves, after millennia. Became “unwanted” and forests and woodland was burnt down or cut down for the specific purpose of lupicide; the killing of every and any wolf –and there was a bounty for “a job well done”.

At the same time there also developed three unique island species of Old fox from the coyote-like Mountain or Greyhound fox, the slightly smaller but robustly built Mastiff or Bulldog fox and the smaller Common or Cur fox –the latter like today’s red foxes had a symbiotic relationship with humans.

These canids were mainly ignored until it was decided that they could provide fur and meat and those things earn money. From that point onward, especially after all other game had been killed off, the fox faced what writers over the centuries referred to as vulpicide –extermination through bounties paid, trapping or hunting and despite all the hunters noting that the Old foxes were nearing extinction they continued to hunt until by the late 1880s the Old were gone and replaced by the New –foxes imported by the thousands every year for the ‘sport’ of fox hunting and this importation also led the the UK seeing the appearance of mange (unknown before the importations).

The travelling British sportsmen went coyote, wolf and jackal hunting and on returning to England wanted to bring a taste of this to “the good old country”. Wolves, jackals and coyotes were set up in hunting territories from where they could learn the lay of the land and provide good sport later. Some hunts even attempted to cross-breed foxes, jackals and Coyotes.

Then there were the legendary –almost mythical– “beasts”; the black beast of Edale, the killer canids of Cavan and the “girt dog” of Ennerdale.

In more recent times raccoon dogs and arctic foxes have appeared in the UK; some released for ‘sport’ while others are exotic escapees long since established in the countryside.

If you thought you knew what fox hunting was about prepare to be woken up by a sharp slap to the face and the reality that, by admissions of hunts themselves, this was all about fun and sport and nothing to do with “pest control”.