Bears were once common in Ireland but are now extinct on the island, having died out in the 1st millennium BC.
Bears were once common in Ireland but are now extinct on the island, having died out in the 1st millennium BC.
A subspecies of the extant brown bear (Ursus arctos) evolved in, and was thus native to, ancient Ireland. This Irish brown bear likely lived much as bears do today, as a primarily carrion-scavenging, omnivorous grazer and browser, opportunistically consuming invertebrates and insect larvae, as well. Additionally, as modern bears do, the Irish brown bear would more than likely vary its broad diet throughout the year, hunting everything from ground-nesting birds and their eggs, rodents, lagomorphs and other small mammals to larger game such as red deer and wild boar, among other ungulates. Atlantic salmon was also a likely favourite, during the fishes' spawning season, in addition to a myriad of other marine and freshwater species; for bears living close to the ocean, it is also possible that they scavenged on stranded or washed-up cetacean remains, as modern polar bears have been documented doing. [1] However, the bulk of a bear's diet, both today and likely in ancient bears, consists largely of wild berries, fruits, nuts and seeds, edible flowers, grasses and herbs.
Bears in Ireland often slept through the cold winter in caves, hollows, burrows or sheltered cliffsides, and several are known to have died during hibernation, with their bones being found by modern archaeologists. [2] The most famous fossils were discovered in Poll na mBéar (literally "bear's hole") in County Leitrim, and Aillwee Cave, County Clare. [3] [4] Remains have also been found at Lough Gur; County Kildare; and County Longford. [5] Perforated bear teeth (worn on necklaces) have been found in caves in County Clare. [6]
A bear patella bearing butchery marks has been dated to 10860–10641 BC; it was found in the Alice and Gwendoline Cave, County Clare.
DNA studies have shown that the Irish bear was intermediate between the modern brown bear and modern polar bear. [7] This suggests that the Irish bear interbred with archaic polar bears during the Pleistocene. [8] The Irish bear is believed to have died out circa 1000–500 BC, due to habitat loss and hunting. [7]
In Old Irish, there are three words used for bear:
The word art fell out of use, with the word gamuin ("calf") being added to math to create mathgamain, and the word beithir being respelled as béar.
The elements art and math often appear in personal names like Arthur or surnames such as MacMahon. [13] In the 12th century Mathghamhain mac Conchobar Maenmaige Ua Conchobair was a prince of Connacht; Mathghamhain Maonmhaighe Ó Briain was King of Thomond in the 15th century; and Mathghamhain Ó hIfearnáin was a poet of the 16th century. [14] [15] [16]
Art mac Cuinn, Art Imlech and Art mac Lugdach were legendary High Kings of Ireland; [17] King Arthur's name is believed to be Brythonic for "bear-man"; and Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach was a 14th-century king. The name Artrí ("bear-king") is also recorded; Artrí mac Cathail was King of Munster in the 8th–9th centuries, and Artrí mac Conchobair was briefly Abbot of Armagh in the 9th century. [18] The surname O'Hart also derives from Ua hAirt, "descendant of Art"; they were based around the Hill of Tara before losing their land in the Norman invasion and resettling in County Sligo. [19] [20]
Bears died out in Ireland prior to the coming of the Celts, so their name does not appear in very many place names. The Beara Peninsula, Bear barony and Bere Island are not named for the mammal; the name is believed to have the same root as Iberia. [21] Lismaha (Irish Lios Matha), a townland in County Roscommon, possibly means "bear ringfort", although it could also be "Matthew's ringfort." [22]
Bear-baiting took place in Ireland in the early modern period, with it being common in Belfast; a baiting in Dublin in 1726 led to a bull and bear escaping, with one bear "[seizing] one man by the leg and tore it to pieces." [23] A bear-baiting took place in Cork in 1769. [24]
Two polar bears lived in Dublin Zoo between the early 1980s and 2003. The female bear's behaviours caused concerns and an independent study was commissioned which found that bears need to be able to spend time alone when they choose. It was later moved to a zoo in Hungary where its needs could be accommodated better. [25]
Habitat loss has made it impossible to reintroduce the bear to Ireland, but there are two brown bears — rescued from a private zoo in Lithuania — residing in Wild Ireland, a 23 acres (9.3 ha) reserve on the Inishowen Peninsula. [26] [27]
Bears occasionally appear in Irish mythology and folk tales, for example, in the tale of The Brown Bear of Norway. [28]
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, and Eurasia. Common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails.
The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from Proto-Celtic. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves Pezron, who made the explicit link between the Celts described by classical writers and the Welsh and Breton languages.
Lugh or Lug is a figure in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of supernatural beings, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a saviour. He is associated with skill and mastery in multiple disciplines, including the arts. Lugh also has associations with oaths, truth and the law, and therefore with rightful kingship. Lugh is linked with the harvest festival of Lughnasadh, which bears his name. His most common epithets are Lámfada and Samildánach. This has sometimes been anglicised as "Lew of the Long Hand".
The polar bear is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear and land carnivore, with adult males weighing 300–800 kg (660–1,760 lb). The species is sexually dimorphic, as adult females are much smaller. The polar bear is white- or yellowish-furred with black skin and a thick layer of fat. It is more slender than the brown bear, with a narrower skull, longer neck and lower shoulder hump. Its teeth are sharper and more adapted to cutting meat. The paws are large and allow the bear to walk on ice and paddle in the water.
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, and Eschrichtiidae. Odontocetes include the Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, and Ziphiidae, as well as the six families of dolphins and porpoises which are not considered whales in the informal sense.
Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.
In Irish mythology, Goibniu was the metalsmith of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is believed to have been a smithing god and is also associated with hospitality. His name is related to the Welsh Gofannon and the Gaulish Gobannus.
The cave bear is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.
The Sluagh, or Sluagh na marbh, were the hosts of the unforgiven dead in Irish and Scottish folklore. In the words of British folklorist Lewis Spence, "In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies." Usually taking a crescent form, similar to a flight of grey birds, they were said to be able to approach and pick up a person from any direction and then transport them far away through the air, from one island to another. Although they would sometimes rescue humans from dangerous rock clefts, they were generally portrayed as dangerous to mortals.
The brown hyena, also called strandwolf, is a species of hyena found in Namibia, Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and South Africa. It is the only extant species in the genus Parahyaena. It is currently the rarest species of hyena. The largest remaining brown hyena population is located in the southern Kalahari Desert and coastal areas in Southwest Africa. The global population of brown hyena is estimated by IUCN at a number between 4,000 and 10,000 and its conservation status is marked as near threatened in the IUCN Red List.
The Atlas bear or North African bear was a population of brown bear native to North Africa that became extinct in historical times.
Agriotherium is an extinct genus of bears whose fossils are found in Miocene through Pleistocene-aged strata of North America, Eurasia, and Africa. This long-lived genus persisted from at least ~11.6–2.5 Mya. Materials from the late-surviving A. africanum in Africa have suggested that A. africanum died out during the early Gelasian.
A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, either via active predation or by scavenging. The remaining non-meat diet may consist of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some extant examples of hypercarnivorous animals include crocodilians, owls, shrikes, eagles, vultures, felids, most wild canids, polar bear, odontocetid cetaceans, snakes, spiders, scorpions, mantises, marlins, groupers, piranhas and most sharks. Every species in the family Felidae, including the domesticated cat, is a hypercarnivore in its natural state. Additionally, this term is also used in paleobiology to describe taxa of animals which have an increased slicing component of their dentition relative to the grinding component. In domestic settings, e.g. cats may have a diet designed from only plant and synthetic sources using modern processing methods. Feeding farmed animals such as alligators and crocodiles mostly or fully plant-based feed is sometimes done to save costs or as an environmentally friendly alternative. Hypercarnivores need not be apex predators. For example, salmon are exclusively carnivorous, yet they are prey at all stages of life for a variety of organisms.
The Grey wolf was an integral part of the Irish countryside and culture, but is now extinct. The last wild wolf in Ireland is said to have been killed in 1786, 300 years after they were believed to have been wiped out in England and 100 years after their disappearance from Scotland.
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The bowhead whale is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus Balaena. It is the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, and is named after its characteristic massive triangular skull, which it uses to break through Arctic ice. Other common names of the species included the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, steeple-top, and polar whale.
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The Curraheen River is a river in County Cork and Cork City, Ireland, a tributary of the River Lee.
Felix Ua Duib Sláin, often anglicised as Felix O'Dullany was a medieval Irish bishop.
Still, polar bears are opportunistic feeders and have been observed in multiple locations eating the carcasses of whales that died at sea and washed ashore. The bears can quickly consume and store large amounts of fat, which works in their favor. In some cases, between 40 and 60 different polar bears have been observed feeding on large bowhead and gray whale carcasses and, in 2017, more than 180 bears were seen scavenging on a single dead bowhead whale. Individual bears frequently return to the same carcass over multiple years.
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