Looking at the Index cards for the Ashton Vale Wildlife Group (AVWG) which dealt with the non exotic animal stuff I found the following:
Back in 1999 I, and people from the University of Wales, Camarthen, were in touch with locals over cat reports and we found out that an area in Mid Glamorgan had a strong population of "Blue foxes" (Silver foxes). These had apparently been brought over from Europe to fight terriers. Some of the foxes escaped. A local forester confirmed this only after I prtoved that I knew the area involved, etc and was not just digging for info.
Paul Garner, a biologist who worked with the EAR noted an albinistic fox in an area of Cambridgeshire in 1999.
1997-1999 melanistic foxes were seen in Devon. One taxi driver who only did night shifts and was a keen naturalist saw them on several; occasions.
Forgot most of this but I think it is in Red Paper.
My problem with this is that it all appears to have gone "Finding Bigfoot" with a "team" and when this clip was forwarded to me by someone whoi retired from UK non native cat research he asked "Why aren't you involved -did you refuse again?"
You see, I was the UK police forces exotic anmal on-call expert (not the only one but the one specialising in Felids and Canids) when it came to identifying tracks, live stock and wild life carcasses suspected of having been predated and so on from 1977-2013 (officially). I have contributed to technical papers on non native cats for seminars and have worked with several professors from universities who were looking into the non native cat issue -no one who is serious uses t6he term "British Big Cat". Because I still get calls from police and observers my telephgone numjber has not changed since 1983. I am also easily found online.
I wrote the Red Paper: Felids on the subject and although I tried as much as I could to avoid it, I did appear in at least two documentaries, TV reports and magazines as an "expert" -a term I never use since there really is no such thing as can expert on this, kinowledgeable yes. I also featured regularly on radio programmes from Scotland to Wales, England, Australia and so on. Also, you have to add to that the stack of news clippings from all over the country -local, regional and national in which I was asked about non native cats.
My ego is not bruised, incidentally, since it is something I lack. My question is that if this is a serious documentary why would the makers pull in people who, to be honest, were probably not born when I started doing this?
Luckily, I do not watch (or have a) television so I am not tempted to watch. My bet is that this is going to become the next subject that sinks and gets lost in a mire of showmanship and unfactual entertainment.
