List of extinct animals of the British Isles

This is a list of extinct animals of the British Isles. Only a small number of these are globally extinct, most famously the Irish elk, great auk and woolly mammoth. Most of the remainder survive to some extent outside the islands. The list includes introduced species only in cases where they were able to form self-sustaining colonies for a time. Only species extinct since Great Britain was separated from mainland Europe are included. The date beside each species is the last date when a specimen was observed in the wild or, where this is not known, the approximate date of extinction. The list is complete for mammals, reptiles, freshwater fish and amphibians.

Mammals^[1]

• Arctic lemming – c. 8000 B.C.
• Arctic fox - c. (unknown)
• †Eurasian aurochs – c. 1000 B.C.
• Barbary macaque - c. 30,000 B.C.
• †Cave bear – c. 15,000 B.C.
• Coypu – 1978 (nonnative)
• Eurasian elk - Bronze Age (reintroduced)
• Eurasian beaver – 1526 (reintroduced)
• Eurasian brown bear – c. A.D. 1000
• Eurasian lynx – c. A.D. 400
• Grey whale – c. 598 B.C.
• Eurasian wolf – A.D. 1680 in Great Britain, A.D. 1786 in Ireland
• †Irish elk – c. 6000 B.C.
• Narrow-headed vole – c. 8000 B.C.
• Steppe pika – c. 8000 B.C.
• Root vole – c. 1500 B.C.
• Saiga antelope – c. 10,000 B.C.
• Steppe lemming – c. 8000 B.C.
• †Tarpan – c. 7000 B.C.
• Walrus – c. 1000 B.C. (occasional visitor) ^[2]
• Wild boar – c. 1400 (reintroduced) ^[3]
• Wisent – c. 3000 B.C.
• Wolverine – c. 6000 B.C.
• †Woolly mammoth – c. 10,000 B.C.
• †Woolly rhinoceros – c. 10,000 B.C.
• †Cave lion – c. 10,000 B.C.
• †Scimitar-toothed cat - c. 30,000 B.C.^[4]
• †Cave hyena - c. 11,000 B.C.
• †European jaguar - c. (unknown)
• †European Ice Age leopard - c. 24,000 B.C.
• †European gazelle - c. (unknown)

Birds

• Fea's petrel – Iron Age
• Dalmatian pelican – c. 1000 B.C.
• Eurasian spoonbill – 15th century (re-established)
• Little egret – late medieval period (re-established)
• Osprey – 1916 (re-established)
• White-tailed eagle – 1916 (reintroduced)
• Western marsh harrier – late 19th century (re-established)
• Northern goshawk – late 19th century (possibly reintroduced)
• Western capercaillie – 1780s (reintroduced)
• Great bustard – 19th century (reintroduced)
• Common crane – late medieval period (re-established)
• Pied avocet – 19th century (re-established)
• Kentish plover – 20th century (last breeding record 1979)^[5]
• †Great auk – 1844
• White stork – 1416
• Red-backed shrike – 1989 (as a regular breeding bird)
• Wryneck (as a regular breeding bird)

Fish

• †Houting
• Burbot

Amphibians

• Agile frog – c. A.D. 1000
• Moor frog – c. A.D. 1000
• European tree frog – 1986

Reptiles

• European pond terrapin – ≤ 3000 B.C.

Insects

Crustaceans

• Artemia salina (brine shrimp) – after 1758^[10][11]

Reintroduction and re-establishment

The white-tailed eagle has been successfully re-established on the west coast of Scotland.^[12] Having clung on in parts of Wales^[13], red kites have been successfully re-established in parts of England and Scotland.^[14] Ongoing projects involve both these species: the corncrake into parts of England and Scotland, and the great bustard on Salisbury Plain.

European beavers have been reintroduced to parts of Scotland, and there are plans to bring them back to other parts of Britain. A five-year trial reintroduction at Knapdale in Argyll started in 2009 and concluded in 2014.^[15] A few hundred beavers live wild in the Tay river basin, as a result of escapes from a wildlife park.^[16] A similar reintroduction trial is being undertaken on the river otter in Devon, England.^[17] In 2016, beavers were recognised as a British native species, and will be protected under law.^[18]

In 2008, moose were released into a fenced reserve on the Alladale Estate in the Highlands of Scotland. Reindeer were re-established in 1952; approximately 150–170 reindeer live around the Cairngorms region in Scotland.

In 1998, MAFF, now known as DEFRA released a report concerning the presence of two populations of wild boar living freely in the UK^[19]. These boar are thought to have escaped from wildlife parks, zoos and from farms where they are farmed for their meat, and gone on to establish breeding populations^[20][21].

The northern clade pool frog was reintroduced from Swedish stock in 2005, to a single site in Norfolk, England, following detailed research to prove that it had been native prior to its extinction around 1993.

The large blue butterfly has been successfully re-established from Swedish stock at a number of sites, but few of these are open-access. There are also several successful cases of the establishment of new populations of heath fritillary.

There have been calls for the reintroduction of the Eurasian lynx, brown bear and grey wolf to the UK.^[22]

See also

• List of mammals of the British Isles
• Extinct animals from the Isle of Man
• List of extinct animals of Europe
• Introduced species of the British Isles

References

Further reading

• A Short History of the British Mammal Fauna (archived)
• The History of British Birds
• Buglife on bumblebees
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee – Invertebrates extinct in the last 100 years vvnoljv;sfolzdfbionszfibkn sfn k;l