Red deer
Red deer were part of the rich mammalian fauna during the Midlandian stage prior to the Drumlin cold phase. Radiocarbon dating shows them present in Co. Waterford from at least 26,100 years ago with more recent records from 11,800 (Co. Sligo) and 4,200–2,000 years ago (Westmeath, Kerry, Clare and Down).27 It would appear that they survived the Drumlin phase of the Midlandian cold stage, possibly along with other mammals whose bones have not yet been found, to earn ‘native’ status in the Killarney Valley, Co. Kerry. However, the degree to which the Killarney deer are unadulterated descendants of the original native stock is a complex and unresolved issue.
Scharff wrote of ‘red deer which still survives in a semi-domesticated and not entirely pure strain in the forests of Killarney.’30 Moffat stated in 1938 that ‘These Deer cannot be claimed as a perfectly pure breed, for inter-breeding has occurred with imported animals, and the extent to which this has prevailed is not easily estimated. The Red Deer at Muckross have, however, at least a fair claim to represent in the main the old native stock that is known to have been abundant throughout Ireland in early historic and pre-historic times.’31 Finally, Whitehead declared in 1964: ‘Of the three established herds, only the Kerry deer can claim descent from the original wild stock, but even these cannot be considered as being perfectly pure bred.’32 Whitehead has produced the only evidence questioning the status of the deer. He reported that during the nineteenth century both Lord Kenmare and Mr Herbert of Muckross, Co. Kerry, brought in fresh blood which included five stags from Co. Roscommon – presumably from the herd at Croghan House Park, Boyle, where a small herd existed until 1939. Around 1900 Lord Kenmare brought in a stag from Windsor Great Park, England, which was liberated in Derrycunihy wood. Also at this time some stags from Muckross were rounded up and sent to Scotland in exchange for Scottish stags. Since the latter arrived, occasional bald-faced deer have been seen in Derrycunihy. They may be the descendants of deer from the Glenlyon area of Perthshire possibly included in the exchange.32 The red deer in Kerry today are confined to the Mangerton and Torc mountain ranges and number about 600.
A recently born red deer calf (F. Guinness).
At the National Park at Glenveagh, Co. Donegal, the red deer herd was established in 1891, when two stags and four hinds were brought in from Glenartney deer forest in Perthshire, followed in 1892 by a stag and nine hinds from Langwell deer forest in Caithness. Subsequently, whenever fresh blood was required it was introduced from either England or from other parks in Ireland such as Colebrooke, Co. Fermanagh (1910), and Slane, Co. Meath (1947–9).32
Sika deer
In 1860, Lord Powerscourt introduced four sika deer from Japan to his demesne in Co. Wicklow. Ireland was the first country in Europe in which these deer were bred successfully.33 Within 24 years, numbers had increased to 100 – not taking into account individuals shot or sent to other parks – and reached 500–600 strong by the early 1930s. Many slipped out into the Wicklow hills and its woodlands where they flourished. Lord Powerscourt mated red with sika deer and produced fertile offspring which was indicative of their close biological relationship. Once started, the hybridisation process spread outside the demesne into the Wicklow Mountains, uplands and forests, where it is unlikely that there is any true red deer left today. In other words, this particular tampering with nature brought about the extinction of a species, albeit only the Wicklow population of red deer. The lessons learnt will hopefully discourage other potential Noahs from introducing non-native species and dabbling in cross-breeding experiments.
Rump patterns of the red (left), fallow (centre) and sika deer (right). From G.B. Corbet & N.H. Southern (1977) The Handbook of British Mammals. Blackwells, Oxford.
Lord Powerscourt, however, was not the first. The Normans had done it before him, bringing both the rabbit and fallow deer into Ireland during the twelfth century. Rabbits became pests, successfully competing with other herbivores for grass, but at least they did not interbreed with other species. Fallow deer provided sport, food and ornament and could be considered as an ecologically benign species although they may cause damage to forestry, agriculture and horticulture.
Lord Powerscourt was a prominent member and one of the vice-presidents of The Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects and Vegetables within the United Kingdom, founded in 1860 and disbanded in 1865. Its purpose was to ‘acclimatise and cultivate those animals, birds etc., which will be useful and suitable to the park, the moorland, the plain, the woodland, the farm, the poultry yard, as well as those which will increase the resources of our seashores, rivers, ponds and gardens’.34 Apart from the sika he brought in other foreign creatures to Ireland: axis deer, Sardinian mouflon (wild sheep), sambar deer and several colour varieties of the red deer including the wapiti or Canadian deer. Fortunately none of these ‘took’ or became acclimatised to Ireland. He also introduced roe deer but nothing is known of the results apart from the fact that they never survived at Powerscourt or elsewhere in Wicklow. Henry Gore-Booth was more successful in the early 1870s and established a small feral population of roe deer on his estate at Lissadell, Co. Sligo. They survived, apparently restricted to the estate, for about 50 years before being shot out.
In 1865, some of the Powerscourt sika deer were sent to the deer park at Killarney. Some 20 years later, they successfully spread throughout the surrounding woodlands, opening up the possibilities of hybridisation with the reds. In the face of this threat, a small number of Killarney red deer was transported during the 1970s to Inishvickillane, a remote and privately owned island off the Kerry coast. They settled down well and are self-sustaining today in a herd of over 50 individuals. Another small group of red deer from Killarney has been established within the Connemara National Park, Co. Galway, where there is no prospect of them interbreeding with sika deer.
Lissadell House and estate, Co. Sligo, the site of roe deer introduction in the early 1870s.
Wolves
Like the red deer, the wolf is an ancient Irish mammal, and one of the several species that became extinct in Ireland in historic times. It was predominant in Irish woods until the end of the seventeenth century, but man, under instruction from the English authorities, soon got the better of it. What organised hunting could not do, wood clearances perfected, and the bulk of the furry marauders was quickly extinguished. A few straggling remnants survived through the eighteenth century and it would appear that the last of the wolves was killed in Co. Carlow in 1786.31
Wolves were present in Ireland from prehistoric times, as shown by remains found in caves in Waterford, Sligo and Cork.35 In those Arcadian days the hungry lupines did not have to cover kilometres to find prey, as the countryside was teeming with giant deer and reindeer. Later, when the giant deer became extinct and man appeared, the beginning of farming meant a renewed diet of cattle and sheep. Fortified settlements such as raths or ring forts dating between 500 BC and AD 1000 are evidence of the necessity to protect domestic animals from thieves and wolves during the night.
From the early days of colonisation, the English authorities were concerned that if Ireland were to be fully civilised, the wolves had to be eradicated. The species had disappeared from England and Wales around 1500 and Scotland was in the process of being rid of it (the last Scottish wolf died in 1740). There is no doubt, however, that, prior to English rule, it had been a sport of the Irish chieftains to hunt the wolf – known as fael or bréach and sometimes occurring under the name ‘son of the country’ (mac-tire).36 For that purpose they