Wolves in Great Britain
Encyclopedia
Wolves
were once present in Great Britain
. Early writing from Roman and later Saxon chronicles indicate that wolves appear to have been extraordinarily numerous on the island. Unlike other British animals, wolves were unaffected by island dwarfism, with certain skeletal remains indicating that they may have grown as large as Arctic wolves
. The species, which was a threat to livestock, human life and frequently desecrated burial sites, was exterminated from Britain through a combination of deforestation and active hunting through bounty systems.
Certain historians write that in 950, King Athelstan imposed an annual tribute of 300 wolf skins on Welsh
king Hywel Dda
, while William of Malmesbury
states that Athelstan requested gold and silver, and that it was his nephew Edgar the Peaceful who gave up that fine and instead demanded a tribute of wolf skins on King Constantine of Wales. Wolves at that time were especially numerous in the districts bordering Wales, which were heavily forested.
This imposition was maintained until the Norman conquest of England
. At the time, several criminals, rather than being put to death, would be ordered to provide a certain number of wolf tongues annually. The monk Galfrid, whilst writing on the miracles of St. Cuthbert seven centuries earlier, observed that wolves were so numerous in Northumbria, that it was virtually impossible for even the richest flock-masters to protect their sheep, despite employing many men for the job. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states that the month of January was known as “Wolf manoth”, as this was the first full month of wolf hunting
by the nobility. Officially, this hunting season would end on March 25, thus it encompassed the cubbing season when wolves were at their most vulnerable, and their fur was of greater quality.
The Norman
kings (reigning from 1066 to 1152 A.D.) employed servants as wolf hunters and many held lands granted on condition they fulfilled this duty. William the Conquerer granted the lordship of Riddesdale in Northumberland to Robert de Umfraville on condition that he defend that land from enemies and wolves. There were no restrictions or penalties in the hunting of wolves, except in royal game reserves, under the reasoning that the temptation for a commoner to shoot a deer there was too great.
English wolves were more often trapped than hunted. Indeed, the Wolfhunt family, who resided in Peak forest in the 13th century, would march into the forest in March and December, and place pitch
in the areas were wolves frequented. At that time of year, wolves would have had greater difficulty in smelling the pitch than in others. During the dry summers, they would enter the forest to destroy cubs. Gerald of Wales wrote of how wolves in Holywell
ate the corpses resulting from Henry II
’s punitive expedition to Wales in 1165.
King John
gave a premium of 10 shillings for the capture of two wolves. King Edward I
who reigned from 1272 to 1307 ordered the total extermination of all wolves in his kingdom and personally employed one Peter Corbet, with instructions to destroy wolves in the counties of Gloucestershire
, Herefordshire
, Worcestershire
, Shropshire
and Staffordshire
, areas near the Welsh Marches
where wolves were more common than in the southern areas of England.
In the forty-third year of Edward III
’s rule, a Thomas Engaine held lands in Pytchley in the county of Northampton
, on the condition that he find special hunting dogs to kill wolves in the counties of Northampton, Rutland
, Oxford
, Essex
and Buckingham
. On the eleventh year of Henry VI
’s regin (1433), a Sir Robert Plumpton held a bovate of land called “Wolf hunt land” in Nottingham
, by service of winding a horn and chasing or frightening the wolves in Shirewood forest. The wolf is generally thought to have become extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII
(1485–1509), or at least very rare. By this time, wolves became limited to the Lancashire
forests of Blackburnshire
and Bowland
, the wilder parts of the Derbyshire
Peak, and the Yorkshire Wolds
. Indeed, wolf bounties were still maintained in the East Riding until the early 19th century.
In Scotland, during the reign of James VI, wolves were considered such a threat to travellers that special houses called spittals were erected on the highways for protection.
In Sutherland
, wolves dug up graves so frequently that the inhabitants of Ederachillis resorted to burying their dead on the Isle of Handa
.
Island burial was a practise also adopted on Tanera Mòr
and on Inishail
, while in Atholl
, coffin
s were made wolf proof by building them out of five flagstones. Wolves likely became extinct in the Scottish Lowlands
during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, when immense tracts of forest were cleared.
James I
passed a law in 1427 requiring 3 wolf hunts a year between 25 April and 1 August, coinciding with the wolf's cubbing season. Scottish wolf populations reached a peak during the second half of the 16th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, is known to have hunted wolves in the forest of Atholl
in 1563.
The wolves later caused such damage to the cattle herds of Sutherland that in 1577 James VI made it compulsory to hunt wolves three times a year. Stories on the killing of the alleged last wolf of Scotland vary. Official records indicate that the last Scottish wolf was killed by Sir Ewan Cameron in 1680 in Killiecrankie (Perthshire). However, there are reports that wolves survived in Scotland
up until the 18th century.
, Llywelyn the Great
, Prince of Gwynedd
, killed his faithful dog Gelert after finding him covered in blood which he presumed belonged to his baby son. Only later does he discover that his son is still alive, and that the blood belonged to a wolf which Gelert killed in defence of the young prince. In Welsh mythology
, both St. Ciwa the "Wolf Girl" and Bairre (an ancestor of Amergin Glúingel
) were said to have been suckled by wolves.Matthews, John & Berk, Ari, Celtic Totem Animals, Red Wheel, 2002
Scottish folklore tells of how an old man named MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain
in the Findhorn
Valley of Morayshire killed the last wolf in 1743. The past presence of wolves in Scotland is attested in Shakespeare's Macbeth
:
were noted to be scanty when compared with the prominence of cave hyena
bones. Cuvier later pointed out that the number of wolf bones in Kirkdale were even fewer than originally thought, as a lot of teeth first referred to belong to wolves turned out to be those of juvenile hyenas. The few positively identified wolf remains were thought to have been transported to the cave system by hyenas for consumption. William Buckland
, in his Reliquiae Diluvianae, wrote that he only found one molar tooth which could be positively identified as being that of a wolf, while other bone fragments were indistinguishable from those of domestic dogs.
In the Paviland limestone
caves of the Gower Peninsula
in south Wales
, the jaw, heel-bone and several metatarsals were found of a large canid, though it was impossible to definitively prove that they belonged to a wolf rather than a large dog.
In a series of caves discovered in a quarry in Oreston
, Plymouth
, a Mr. Whidbey found several bones and teeth of a species of canis indistinguishable from modern wolves. Richard Owen
examined a jaw bone excavated from Oreston, which he remarked was from a subadult animal with evidence of having been enlarged by exotosis and ulceration, probably due to a fight with another wolf. The other bones showed evidence of having been gnawed by small animals, and many were further damaged by workmen in their efforts to extricate them from the clay. Unlike the Kirkdale wolves, the Oreston remains showed no evidence of having been gnawed on by hyenas.
An almost entire skull with missing teeth was discovered in Kents Cavern by a Mr. Mac Enery. The skull was exactly equal in size to that of an Arctic wolf
, the only notable differences being that the sectorial
molar was slightly larger and the lower border of the jaw was more convex. It was positively identified as being that of a wolf by its low and contracted forehead.
damaging young trees in commercial forests. Scottish National Heritage considered re-establishing carefully controlled colonies of wolves, but shelved the idea following an outcry from sheep farmers.
In 2002, Paul van Vlissingen, a wealthy landowner at Letterewe, Achnasheen, Ross-shire, in the Western Highlands, proposed the reintroduction of both wolves and lynxes to Scotland, stating that current deer culling methods were inadequate, and that wolves would boost the Scottish tourist industry.
In 2007, British and Norwegian researchers which included experts from the Imperial College London
said that wolf reintroduction into the Scottish Highlands would aid the re-establishment of plants and birds currently hampered by the deer population. The study also assessed people's attitudes towards the idea of releasing wolves into the wild. While the public were generally positive, people living in rural areas were more sensitive, though they were open to the idea provided they would be reimbursed for livestock losses.
Richard Morley, of the Wolves and Humans Foundation (formerly The Wolf Society of Great Britain), forecast in 2007 that public support for wolf reintroduction would grow over the next 15 years, though he criticised previous talks as being too "simple or romantic". He stated that although wolves would be good for tourism, farmers and crofters have serious concerns about the effect wolves could have on their livestock, particularly sheep, that have to be acknowledged.
Gray Wolf
The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...
were once present in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. Early writing from Roman and later Saxon chronicles indicate that wolves appear to have been extraordinarily numerous on the island. Unlike other British animals, wolves were unaffected by island dwarfism, with certain skeletal remains indicating that they may have grown as large as Arctic wolves
Arctic Wolf
The Arctic Wolf , also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a mammal of the family Canidae. Arctic Wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and the northern parts of Greenland....
. The species, which was a threat to livestock, human life and frequently desecrated burial sites, was exterminated from Britain through a combination of deforestation and active hunting through bounty systems.
England and Wales
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
king Hywel Dda
Hywel Dda
Hywel Dda , was the well-thought-of king of Deheubarth in south-west Wales, who eventually came to rule Wales from Prestatyn to Pembroke. As a descendant of Rhodri Mawr, through his father Cadell, Hywel was a member of the Dinefwr branch of the dynasty and is also named Hywel ap Cadell...
, while William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
states that Athelstan requested gold and silver, and that it was his nephew Edgar the Peaceful who gave up that fine and instead demanded a tribute of wolf skins on King Constantine of Wales. Wolves at that time were especially numerous in the districts bordering Wales, which were heavily forested.
This imposition was maintained until the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. At the time, several criminals, rather than being put to death, would be ordered to provide a certain number of wolf tongues annually. The monk Galfrid, whilst writing on the miracles of St. Cuthbert seven centuries earlier, observed that wolves were so numerous in Northumbria, that it was virtually impossible for even the richest flock-masters to protect their sheep, despite employing many men for the job. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states that the month of January was known as “Wolf manoth”, as this was the first full month of wolf hunting
Wolf hunting
Wolf hunting is the practice of hunting grey wolves or other lupine animals. Wolves are mainly hunted for sport, for their skins, to protect livestock, and, in some rare cases, to protect humans. Wolves have been actively hunted since 12,000 to 13,000 years ago, when they first began to pose...
by the nobility. Officially, this hunting season would end on March 25, thus it encompassed the cubbing season when wolves were at their most vulnerable, and their fur was of greater quality.
The Norman
Norman dynasty
Norman dynasty is the usual designation for the family that were the Dukes of Normandy and the English monarchs which immediately followed the Norman conquest and lasted until the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in 1154. It included Rollo and his descendants, and from William the Conqueror and...
kings (reigning from 1066 to 1152 A.D.) employed servants as wolf hunters and many held lands granted on condition they fulfilled this duty. William the Conquerer granted the lordship of Riddesdale in Northumberland to Robert de Umfraville on condition that he defend that land from enemies and wolves. There were no restrictions or penalties in the hunting of wolves, except in royal game reserves, under the reasoning that the temptation for a commoner to shoot a deer there was too great.
English wolves were more often trapped than hunted. Indeed, the Wolfhunt family, who resided in Peak forest in the 13th century, would march into the forest in March and December, and place pitch
Pitch (resin)
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
in the areas were wolves frequented. At that time of year, wolves would have had greater difficulty in smelling the pitch than in others. During the dry summers, they would enter the forest to destroy cubs. Gerald of Wales wrote of how wolves in Holywell
Holywell
Holywell is the fifth largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying to the west of the estuary of the River Dee.-History:The market town of Holywell takes its name from the St Winefride's Well, a holy well surrounded by a chapel...
ate the corpses resulting from Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
’s punitive expedition to Wales in 1165.
King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
gave a premium of 10 shillings for the capture of two wolves. King Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
who reigned from 1272 to 1307 ordered the total extermination of all wolves in his kingdom and personally employed one Peter Corbet, with instructions to destroy wolves in the counties of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
and Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, areas near the Welsh Marches
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
where wolves were more common than in the southern areas of England.
In the forty-third year of Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
’s rule, a Thomas Engaine held lands in Pytchley in the county of Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, on the condition that he find special hunting dogs to kill wolves in the counties of Northampton, Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
and Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
. On the eleventh year of Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
’s regin (1433), a Sir Robert Plumpton held a bovate of land called “Wolf hunt land” in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, by service of winding a horn and chasing or frightening the wolves in Shirewood forest. The wolf is generally thought to have become extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
(1485–1509), or at least very rare. By this time, wolves became limited to the Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
forests of Blackburnshire
Blackburnshire
Blackburnshire was a hundred, or ancient division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. It was centred on Blackburn, and covered an area approximately equal to modern day East Lancashire....
and Bowland
Forest of Bowland
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
, the wilder parts of the Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
Peak, and the Yorkshire Wolds
Yorkshire Wolds
The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in northeastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie....
. Indeed, wolf bounties were still maintained in the East Riding until the early 19th century.
Scotland
In Sutherland
Sutherland
Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
, wolves dug up graves so frequently that the inhabitants of Ederachillis resorted to burying their dead on the Isle of Handa
Handa, Scotland
Handa is an island off the west coast of Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. It is and at its highest point.A small ferry sails to Handa from Tarbet on the mainland and boat trips operate to it from Fanagmore....
.
Island burial was a practise also adopted on Tanera Mòr
Tanera Mòr
Tanera Mòr is an inhabited island in Loch Broom in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is the largest of the Summer Isles and the only inhabited island in that group...
and on Inishail
Inishail
Inishail is an island and former parish, in Loch Awe, Scotland.-Geography:The island lies at the north end of the loch in the council area of Argyll and Bute, between Cladich and Kilchurn...
, while in Atholl
Atholl
Atholl or Athole is a large historical division in the Scottish Highlands. Today it forms the northern part of Perth and Kinross, Scotland bordering Marr, Badenoch, Breadalbane, Strathearn, Perth and Lochaber....
, coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
s were made wolf proof by building them out of five flagstones. Wolves likely became extinct in the Scottish Lowlands
Scottish Lowlands
The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, when immense tracts of forest were cleared.
James I
James I of Scotland
James I, King of Scots , was the son of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was probably born in late July 1394 in Dunfermline as youngest of three sons...
passed a law in 1427 requiring 3 wolf hunts a year between 25 April and 1 August, coinciding with the wolf's cubbing season. Scottish wolf populations reached a peak during the second half of the 16th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, is known to have hunted wolves in the forest of Atholl
Atholl
Atholl or Athole is a large historical division in the Scottish Highlands. Today it forms the northern part of Perth and Kinross, Scotland bordering Marr, Badenoch, Breadalbane, Strathearn, Perth and Lochaber....
in 1563.
The wolves later caused such damage to the cattle herds of Sutherland that in 1577 James VI made it compulsory to hunt wolves three times a year. Stories on the killing of the alleged last wolf of Scotland vary. Official records indicate that the last Scottish wolf was killed by Sir Ewan Cameron in 1680 in Killiecrankie (Perthshire). However, there are reports that wolves survived in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
up until the 18th century.
Folklore and literature
In the Welsh tale of GelertGelert
Gelert is the name of a legendary dog associated with the village of Beddgelert in Gwynedd, northwest Wales. The story of Gelert is a variation on the well-worn "Faithful Hound" folk-tale motif, which lives on as an urban legend...
, Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...
, Prince of Gwynedd
Kingdom of Gwynedd
Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...
, killed his faithful dog Gelert after finding him covered in blood which he presumed belonged to his baby son. Only later does he discover that his son is still alive, and that the blood belonged to a wolf which Gelert killed in defence of the young prince. In Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
, both St. Ciwa the "Wolf Girl" and Bairre (an ancestor of Amergin Glúingel
Amergin Glúingel
Amergin Glúingel or Glúnmar is a druid, bard and judge for the Milesians in the Irish Mythological Cycle. He was appointed Chief Ollam of Ireland by his two brothers the kings of Ireland...
) were said to have been suckled by wolves.Matthews, John & Berk, Ari, Celtic Totem Animals, Red Wheel, 2002
Scottish folklore tells of how an old man named MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain
MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain
MacQueen of Pall à Chrocain was a legendary Highland deer stalker popularly believed to have slain the last wolf in Scotland in 1743. The scene of the incident was Tarnaway Forest in the province of Morayshire in the county of Inverness...
in the Findhorn
Findhorn
Findhorn is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles by road from Forres....
Valley of Morayshire killed the last wolf in 1743. The past presence of wolves in Scotland is attested in Shakespeare's Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
:
Fossil finds
Wolf remains in the Kirkdale CaveKirkdale Cave
Kirkdale Cave is a cave located in Kirkdale near Kirkbymoorside in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. The cave was discovered by workmen in 1821, and was found to contain fossilized bones of a variety of mammals not currently found in Great Britain, including hippopotamus, the...
were noted to be scanty when compared with the prominence of cave hyena
Cave Hyena
The Cave Hyena is an extinct subspecies of spotted hyena native to Eurasia, ranging from Northern China to Spain and into the British Isles...
bones. Cuvier later pointed out that the number of wolf bones in Kirkdale were even fewer than originally thought, as a lot of teeth first referred to belong to wolves turned out to be those of juvenile hyenas. The few positively identified wolf remains were thought to have been transported to the cave system by hyenas for consumption. William Buckland
William Buckland
The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...
, in his Reliquiae Diluvianae, wrote that he only found one molar tooth which could be positively identified as being that of a wolf, while other bone fragments were indistinguishable from those of domestic dogs.
In the Paviland limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
caves of the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
in south Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the jaw, heel-bone and several metatarsals were found of a large canid, though it was impossible to definitively prove that they belonged to a wolf rather than a large dog.
In a series of caves discovered in a quarry in Oreston
Oreston
Oreston, formerly a village on the southern bank of the Cattewater, is now a suburb of Plymouth.Famed for its limestone quarries, and the discovery of prehistoric remains of animals such as rhinos and lions, stone from which was used in the construction of Plymouth Breakwater, the name is assumed...
, Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, a Mr. Whidbey found several bones and teeth of a species of canis indistinguishable from modern wolves. Richard Owen
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen, FRS KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
examined a jaw bone excavated from Oreston, which he remarked was from a subadult animal with evidence of having been enlarged by exotosis and ulceration, probably due to a fight with another wolf. The other bones showed evidence of having been gnawed by small animals, and many were further damaged by workmen in their efforts to extricate them from the clay. Unlike the Kirkdale wolves, the Oreston remains showed no evidence of having been gnawed on by hyenas.
An almost entire skull with missing teeth was discovered in Kents Cavern by a Mr. Mac Enery. The skull was exactly equal in size to that of an Arctic wolf
Arctic Wolf
The Arctic Wolf , also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a mammal of the family Canidae. Arctic Wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and the northern parts of Greenland....
, the only notable differences being that the sectorial
Carnassial
Carnassials are large teeth found in many carnivorous mammals, used for shearing flesh and bone in a scissor- or shear-like way. In the Carnivora, the carnassials are the modified last upper premolar and the first molar, but in the prehistoric creodonts, the carnassials were further back in the...
molar was slightly larger and the lower border of the jaw was more convex. It was positively identified as being that of a wolf by its low and contracted forehead.
Reintroduction to Scotland
In 1999, Dr. Martyn Gorman, senior lecturer in zoology at Aberdeen University and vice chairman of the UK Mammal Society called for a reintroduction of wolves to the Scottish Highlands in order to deal with the then 350,000 red deerRed Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
damaging young trees in commercial forests. Scottish National Heritage considered re-establishing carefully controlled colonies of wolves, but shelved the idea following an outcry from sheep farmers.
In 2002, Paul van Vlissingen, a wealthy landowner at Letterewe, Achnasheen, Ross-shire, in the Western Highlands, proposed the reintroduction of both wolves and lynxes to Scotland, stating that current deer culling methods were inadequate, and that wolves would boost the Scottish tourist industry.
In 2007, British and Norwegian researchers which included experts from the Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
said that wolf reintroduction into the Scottish Highlands would aid the re-establishment of plants and birds currently hampered by the deer population. The study also assessed people's attitudes towards the idea of releasing wolves into the wild. While the public were generally positive, people living in rural areas were more sensitive, though they were open to the idea provided they would be reimbursed for livestock losses.
Richard Morley, of the Wolves and Humans Foundation (formerly The Wolf Society of Great Britain), forecast in 2007 that public support for wolf reintroduction would grow over the next 15 years, though he criticised previous talks as being too "simple or romantic". He stated that although wolves would be good for tourism, farmers and crofters have serious concerns about the effect wolves could have on their livestock, particularly sheep, that have to be acknowledged.