Skins

Hedgehog

Hedgehog[Erinaceidae family]

Lorcan Scott Duchas

Hedgehog
Lorcan Scott Duchas

Hedgehog

Hedgehog[Erinaceidae family]

Lorcan Scott Duchas

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Some animals may have been brought in to breed for their skins. Badger, otter, pine marten, red fox, red squirrel, even the wild cat were all candidates for early introduction for this purpose, but repeated trapping expeditions to Britain in primitive boats would have needed much perseverance and skill.

The red deer, too, most majestic of our mammals, was possibly reintroduced to Ireland in medieval times, after its earlier brief return and extinction in the later throes of the Ice Age.

Fox

Red fox in long grass. A reddish brown colour, with large eyes and ears, and a white chest and belly. Red Foxes are omnivorous, eating mostly rodents, insects and fruit. They have a characteristic way of hunting. The fox stands motionless, listening and watching for its prey and then leaps high into the air, bringing its forelimbs down straight and pinning its prey to the ground. Red foxes live solitary lives. Individuals will occupy home ranges of various sizes depending on the quality of the habitat. These ranges will be inhabited by one adult male and two adult female with their associated young. Individuals and family groups live in dens, the same den often being used by a number of successive generations. Once the pups are mature they move into their own territory, but they remain in the same home range for life.

With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust

Fox
With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust

Fox

Red fox in long grass. A reddish brown colour, with large eyes and ears, and a white chest and belly. Red Foxes are omnivorous, eating mostly rodents, insects and fruit. They have a characteristic way of hunting. The fox stands motionless, listening and watching for its prey and then leaps high into the air, bringing its forelimbs down straight and pinning its prey to the ground. Red foxes live solitary lives. Individuals will occupy home ranges of various sizes depending on the quality of the habitat. These ranges will be inhabited by one adult male and two adult female with their associated young. Individuals and family groups live in dens, the same den often being used by a number of successive generations. Once the pups are mature they move into their own territory, but they remain in the same home range for life.

With kind permission of the Irish Wildlife Trust

Enlarge image

Whether or not the deer was restored in this way, its previous presence on the island has guaranteed it a 'native' status and merited determined conservation effort to keep at least one herd of pure blood. The importation in 1860, at Powerscourt Park in County Wicklow, of the first Japanese sika deer, led to cross-breeding with native red deer and the subsequent escape of hybrid animals to the Wicklow hills and beyond. Today, sika are even present alongside the 'pure' red deer in Killarney National Park, but no hybridisation has so far occurred.