MAMMALS EXTINCT IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS 



WITHIN HISTORIC TIMES 



There are five interesting wild animals which have become extinct in 

 our islands within historic times, namely, the Wolf, the Brown Bear, 

 the Beaver, the Reindeer, and the Wild Boar. 



THE WOLF. 



Cants lupus, Linnaeus. 



This species was once so numerous as to be a scourge in many parts 

 of the land, and appears to have survived to a later period than any of 

 the others on the list. The many place-names referring to the presence 

 of the animal in widely separated localities show how prevalent it was 

 in past days, and how great an impression it made on the imagination 

 of the people in their homes when the Wolf had literally to be kept from 

 the door, and when places of refuge had to be constructed to shelter 

 travellers among lonely moors and forests. 



In England, where it is said to have lingered till about the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, it had disappeared long before the last were killed 

 in Scotland and Ireland. 



In Scotland the great uncleared forests of the Highlands harboured 

 the Wolf until much later, so that it survived there to a comparatively 

 recent date, the last being probably the "four old ones and some whelps" 



lOO 



