The black fox photographed and then unfortunately killed on the road in Bassingborn, Herts, was discovered to have Raccoon dog in its ancestry. Bio-medical sciences lecturer Helen McRobie from the Anglica Ruskin University extracted DNA from material taken from the remains in the hope of discovering the mutation causing the foxes black fur. She did find one gene related to pigmentation but also discovered the samples to be very similar to that of the raccoon dogs bred for fur in Russia suggesting these species had been hybridised for the fur trade. Helen was Kind enough to send me some hair and tissue samples for further testing.
Dear Jon,
The black fox photographed and then unfortunately killed on the road in Bassingborn, Herts, was discovered to have Raccoon dog in its ancestry. Bio-medical sciences lecturer Helen McRobie from the Anglica Ruskin University extracted DNA from material taken from the remains in the hope of discovering the mutation causing the foxes black fur. She did find one gene related to pigmentation but also discovered the samples to be very similar to that of the raccoon dogs bred for fur in Russia suggesting these species had been hybridised for the fur trade. Helen was Kind enough to send me some hair and tissue samples for further testing.
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