What is it about?
This paper reports for the first time the full range of birds and mammals taken by collectors and sportsmen in what is now Cumbria in North-west England based on an accounts book of R. G. W. Raine Brothers, a firm of taxidermists in Carlisle.
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Why is it important?
Taxidermists records are an important source of information about the wildlife killed in a particular area in the past, but rarely enable the contribution of gamekeepers to be distinguished from those of collectors and sportsmen. The significance of this paper is that it enables the range of material collected only by collectors and sportsmen to be identified.
Perspectives
Cumbrian wildlife (as wildlife elsewhere in Britain) was subject to intense persecution in the past from the likes of gamekeepers, collectors and sportsmen. This publication provides information on the scale and range species involved in this slaughter. Of particular interest are the number of Otters (46) killed by just five persons during the period covered.
Robin Sellers
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Birds and mammals preserved by R. & G. W. Raine Brothers, the Carlisle taxidermists, 1918–1943, Archives of Natural History, April 2017, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/anh.2017.0415.
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