I was always told by the established Old Boys who had been told by their established Old Boys that fox cubs are born black and they soon take on their "red coat".
By the mid 1990s I was positive that this was dogma.
I began to seriously look at black fox reports as Keith Foster in the United States had noted that it(melanism) might be an indicator of a species under pressure. But female taxi driver (a keen naturalist) spotted black foxes a few times in Devon. There were reports of black and even white foxe up on the Scottish border.
Unfortunately, many naturalist groups (such as the British Naturalist Association (f 1905) BNA) were "tea and biscuit social group and if it wasn't a pretty bird or butterfly and very good weather....their backsides were glued into armchairs. Those who were keeping an eye on foxes were NOT disclosing locations or other data (understandable in a way).
I worked out -and this is GUESSWORK- that in any given year there must be a large number of black foxes running around. I had to exclude Raccoon Dogs and even raccoons ("a weird looking fox") but I think it would take a lot of people around the UK to forward reports so that we could see if I was right or wrong.
Sadly, after a few months responses to appeals total ZERO.
I guess no money in it or celebrity status.
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