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 were assisted by dogs of gigantic proportion, great swiftness and indomitable courage, variously called ‘Wolf-dogs’ or ‘Wolf-hounds’ and not to be confused with greyhounds – although historical research is vague on the origin of the wolfhound as a specific breed and confusion is often noticeable.
Wolf from the Book of Kells (c.800 AD). (The Board of Trinity College, Dublin).
The habit was to kill the wolves by trailing a dead horse through the woods before dropping it in a clearing. When the wolves came to feed at night, the hounds were let slip and quickly dealt with the famished guests. As farming developed and more of the country was put under pasture, the wolf became an increasing nuisance and hunting was promoted through various edicts and bills. In a ‘Book of Information’ compiled in 1584 it was recommended that ‘some order might be had, as when the lease is granted to put in some clause that the tenant endeavour himself to spoil and kill Wolves with traps, snares, or such devices as he may devise’.37 No doubt, the species in the sixteenth century was still very widespread and numerous. An entry in the diary of William Russell, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, in 1596 indicates that there were wolves in the woods just outside Dublin. Further action was encouraged under James I and in 1611 it was decided that an ‘Act for killing Wolves and other vermin’ was necessary – though it was never passed. The text of the proposed Bill cautioned the Lord Deputy or Principal Governor to call off the hunt if they thought that the hunters (requisitioned peasants mostly) were using it as a ploy to get armed – a clear case of wolves in sheep’s clothing.
In a subsequent attempt to civilise Ireland, Cromwell brought out a Bill in 1653 spelling out the necessity to hunt and destroy the plunderers he called ‘doggie wolves’. Some organisation was required – ‘daies and tymes for hunting the Wolfe’ had to be appointed – and money was to be paid on presentation of the heads of male, female or
