This research wouldn't have been possible without paw donations from Essex Wildlife Trust, the Cardiff Bio HPC team, and funding from NERC GW4+ and @embo.org

Thanks to all the Cardiff folk 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷 @o-o-frank.bsky.social @otterproject.bsky.social @molecol-cardiffuni.bsky.social and the Copenhagen lot 🇩🇰 @hologenomics.bsky.social

🙏 Thanks to all my co-authors on this publication, I’m glad to have another chapter from my PhD out there, and the work that first brought me to Copenhagen!

🧬 While preliminary (n=2), these findings demonstrate the significant potential of museum specimens, and specifically otter hunting trophies, for temporal population genetic studies in this species and system, providing crucial context for contemporary conservation efforts.

📊 Despite coming from the east of England, we showed that the historical samples cluster with modern Welsh populations rather than with modern east England populations, and don’t show the divergent, Asian, mitochondrial lineage, suggesting any possible Asian introductions likely occurred later.

🔬 Our study examined 2 trophy paws from 1929 and 1952, yielding 77 and 85% endogenous DNA, establishing these specimens as valuable resources for historical genetic research.

We've got some exciting canidae work ongoing, so stay tuned... 💀🦊

It was a bat-eared fox, Otocyon megalotis!