Deer of Ireland

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Skeleton of an Irish elk, Indian Museum Skeleton of an Irish deer.jpg
Skeleton of an Irish elk, Indian Museum

There are four species of deer living wild in Ireland today, namely red deer, fallow deer, sika deer, [1] and the recently introduced Reeve's muntjac, which is becoming established. Recently, roe deer have been spotted in county Wicklow and county Armagh. [2] The Irish elk and the red deer both became extinct in Ireland about 10,500 years ago during the Nahanagan Stadial. The reindeer was extirpated from Ireland about 9,500 years ago. Many of their skeletal remains have been found well preserved in peat land. [3]

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The current red deer population, once thought to have been descendants from the native stock which had come to Ireland at the end of the last ice age, are now believed to have been brought from Britain across the North Channel by neolithic people around 3300 BC. They almost became extinct again in the 20th century, with only around 60 left, but have now made a comeback to approximately one thousand [4] where the "native" herd has survived in Killarney National Park. [5]

Fallow deer were introduced in Norman times, and now have a population up to 60,000 in the wild. Sika deer were introduced in Powerscourt park in 1860, escaped from captivity, and now number up to 50,000. Scottish roe deer were introduced to the Lissadell Estate in County Sligo around 1870 by Sir Henry Gore-Booth. [6] The Lissadell deer were noted for their occasional abnormal antlers and survived in that general area for about 50 years before they died out, and no roe deer currently exist in Ireland.

Extinct/extirpated deer species

Reintroduced species

Introduced species

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deer</span> Family of mammals

A deer or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae. It is divided into subfamilies Cervinae and Capreolinae. Male deer of almost all species, as well as female reindeer, grow and shed new antlers each year. These antlers are bony extensions of the skull and are often used for combat between males.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roe deer</span> Species of deer

The roe deer, also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east as far as northern Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sika deer</span> Species of deer native to much of East Asia

The sika deer, also known as the Northernspotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south to the Russian Far East in the north, it is an uncommon species that has been extirpated in most areas of its native range, except in Japan, where it is overabundant and present in very large numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game (hunting)</span> Wild animals under pursuit or taken in hunting

Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products, for recreation ("sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, though most are terrestrial mammals and birds. Fish caught non-commercially are also referred to as game fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muntjac</span> Genus of deer

Muntjacs, also known as the barking deer or rib-faced deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Muntjacs are thought to have begun appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland. Most are listed as least-concern species or Data Deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although others such as the black muntjac, Bornean yellow muntjac, and giant muntjac are vulnerable, near threatened, and Critically Endangered, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish elk</span> Extinct species of deer

The Irish elk, also called the giant deer or Irish deer, is an extinct species of deer in the genus Megaloceros and is one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleistocene, from Ireland to Lake Baikal in Siberia. The most recent remains of the species have been radiocarbon dated to about 7,700 years ago in western Russia. Its antlers, which can span 3.5 metres (11 ft) across are the largest known of any deer. It is not closely related to either living species called the elk, with it being widely agreed that its closest living relatives are fallow deer (Dama).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veluwe</span> Forest-rich ridge of hills in the Netherlands

The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes, including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killarney National Park</span> National park in County Kerry, Ireland

Killarney National Park, near the town of Killarney, County Kerry, was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 102.89 km2 of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland. The park is of high ecological value because of the quality, diversity, and extensiveness of many of its habitats and the wide variety of species that they accommodate, some of which are rare. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981. The park forms part of a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reeves's muntjac</span> Species of deer

Reeves's muntjac, also known as the Chinese muntjac, is a species of muntjac found widely in south-eastern China and Taiwan. It has also been introduced in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan. It takes its name from John Reeves, a naturalist employed by the British East India Company in the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cervinae</span> Subfamily of deer

The Cervinae or the Old World deer, are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the plesiometacarpal deer, due to having lost the parts of the second and fifth metacarpal bones closest to the foot, distinct from the telemetacarpal deer of the Capreolinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deer hunting</span> Practice/activity of hunting deer

Deer hunting is hunting deer for meat and sport, an activity which dates back tens of thousands of years. Venison, the name for deer meat, is a nutritious and natural food source of animal protein that can be obtained through deer hunting. There are many different types of deer around the world that are hunted for their meat. For sport, often hunters try to kill deer with the largest and most antlers to score them using inches. There are two different categories of antlers. They are typical and nontypical. They measure tine length, beam length, and beam mass by each tine. They will add all these measurements up to get a score. This score is the score without deductions. Deductions occur when the opposite tine is not the same length as it is opposite. That score is the deducted score.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Great Britain</span> Animal species in Great Britain

The island of Great Britain, along with the rest of the archipelago known as the British Isles, has a largely temperate climate. It contains a relatively small fraction of the world's wildlife. The biota was severely diminished in the last ice age, and shortly thereafter was separated from the continent by the English Channel's formation. Since then, humans have hunted the most dangerous forms to extinction, though domesticated forms such as the dog and the pig remain. The wild boar has subsequently been reintroduced as a meat animal.

Six species of deer are living wild in Great Britain: Scottish red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, sika deer, Reeves's muntjac, and Chinese water deer. Of those, Scottish red and roe deer are native and have lived in the isles throughout the Holocene. Fallow deer have been reintroduced twice, by the Romans and the Normans, after dying out in the last ice age. The other three are escaped or released alien species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persian fallow deer</span> Species of deer

The Persian fallow deer is a deer species once native to all of the Middle East, but currently only living in Iran and Israel. It was reintroduced in Israel. It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2008. After a captive breeding program, the population has rebounded from only a handful of deer in the 1960s to over a thousand individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Wales</span> Animals living in Wales

Fauna of Wales includes marine and land animals, birds and reptiles that are resident, visitors or have been introduced to Wales.

An ornamental animal is an animal kept for display or curiosity, often in a park. A wide range of mammals, birds and fish have been kept as ornamental animals. Ornamental animals have often formed the basis of introduced populations, sometimes with negative ecological effects, but a history of being kept as ornamental animals has also preserved breeds, types and even species which have become rare or extinct elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fallow deer</span> Genus of deer commonly called "fallow deer"

Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus Dama of subfamily Cervinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiversity of Wales</span> Variety of life in Wales

The biodiversity of Wales is the wide variety of ecosystems, living organisms, and the genetic makeups found in Wales.

References

  1. "Wild Deer Association of Ireland". Archived from the original on 2009-05-26. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  2. "Roe deer distribution map has been up-dated - National Biodiversity Data Centre". 22 August 2016.
  3. "Are there any reindeer in Ireland?".
  4. "Kerry red deer ancestry traced to population introduced to Ireland by ancient peoples over 5,000 years ago" . Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  5. "Nature & Wildlife – Killarney National Park".
  6. The roe deer by Henry Tegner 1951
  7. 1 2 3 Annett, Judith A. "Deer Management in Ireland" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-20. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-20. Retrieved 2019-11-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Concern over illegal spread of Chinese deer". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  10. "Roe deer distribution map has been up-dated - National Biodiversity Data Centre". 22 August 2016.

Valuable reading

Butler, F. & Keelleher, C. (eds) (2012). "All-Ireland Mammal Symposium 2009". Irish Naturalists' Journal, Belfast, 90 pp.