December, 1922. TJic Irish Xa/in'alisl. 133 



THE WOLF IN IRELAND. 



RY R. F. SCIIARFF. 



That the Wolf once lived in Ireland must be known to every 

 reader of this magazine. The past history of Ireland is 

 lull of episodes in which the Wolf plays a prominent part. 

 And yet in spite of this fact wt^ are strangely ignorant of the 

 habits and even of the precise species of this formidable 

 Irish carnivore. Was it identical with the Wolf still living 

 in France ? Why was it so abundant in Ireland ? Was it 

 indigenous to this country, and how did it reach Ireland ? 

 These are some of the questions tliat as yet have received 

 no satisfactory answer. In any case, as the subject has never 

 been dealt with in the pages of this magazine, I venture 

 to publish a few notes which may elucidate some of the 

 doubtful points in the life history of the Irish W^olf. 



The oldest Irish Wolf remains occur in the caves. Asso- 

 ciated with the bones and teeth of Reindeer, Mammoth and 

 Irish Elk, certain remains of a large dog-like carnivore 

 have been found. These could not be distinguished from 

 the bones and teeth of the Irish Wolf-hound, but Prof. Leith 

 Adams was of opinion that they belonged to the Wolf. For 

 it is generally believed that the Wolf-hound did not exist 

 as a wild species, but originated' at a much later period as 

 the result of selection and domestication by man. The 

 Irish Wolf was first identified by Leith Adams in Shandon 

 and Ballinamintra Caves in the County Waterford.^ In more 

 recent years I showed that both teeth and bones of the Wolf 

 occur in the Kesh caves. County Sligo, and in Castlepook 

 Cave in County Cork. I also pointed out that although the 

 bones of the Wolf and Wolf-dog are indistinguishable, the 

 molar teeth of the former are decidedly larger than those of 

 the Wolf-dog. They are even larger than the molar teeth 

 of the modern European Wolf as far as I could ascertain. 



1 A. Leith Adams : Report on the Exploration of Shandon Cave, 

 Trans. R. Irish Acad., Vol. xxvi., 1876. Exploration in the Bone Cave 

 pf Ballinarnintra. Trans. R. Diibli)} Soc, Vol. vii. (s. 2), 18S1, 



