If you traveled back 250-500 years what #wildlife could you see near you? After a four year research project, I can tell you the answer in Britain and Ireland and it is quite exciting! (πΊβπβπ°βπ¦ββπ¦βπβ)!
My Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife will be published in June, but I have special permission to share some of my findings before that, so I will be releasing one map each month here. Here is a list of previously released ones: https://historyandnature.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/atlas-maps/
#gis
December's historical wildlife map is of the (harbour/grey) #seal! According to my research, seals were widespread around Britain and Ireland 250-500 years ago! πβπ§ββοΈβ
Interestingly, seals started to decline after the end of the #EarlyModern period due to increased hunting. Around 1900 they had become so rare that they had to be legally protected. They have recovered pretty well since, and it's now pupping season, so look out for them if you walk on the coast this winter! πβπ #histodons #mammals
Happy #SaveTheEaglesDay!
Where I live now, eagles seem impossibly mythic birds, but according to my research, just 250-500 years ago White-tailed Eagles (or Sea Eagles) were widespread around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. The last native White-tailed Eagle was only shot in 1918! π¬
But this is not the end of the story. The eagles are reintroduced on Mull, Wester Ross and Fife in Scotland, Killarney NP in Co Kerry and now the Isle of Wight in England. Please post pics if you see one! π¦
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The Burbot is a sinuous fish with chunky pectoral fins. It was never widespread in Britain and Ireland but I have collected records showing it was found in the east of England 250-500 years ago. It seems to have only gone extinct there around 1970!
In recent years there has been talk by the Norfolk Rivers Trust of reintroducing it, so perhaps it will be back soon!
#EarlyModern #histodons #extinction #fishing #fish #reintroduction #rewilding
250-500 years ago, I have found #frogs were recorded across #earlymodern Britain, but interestingly not Ireland. This is surprising because we normally consider frogs to be native in Ireland! πβ
Frogs also seem to have been reintroduced to Orkney and the Isle of Man in this period. Unless someone made a mistake, this happened multiple times - it is possible there have been multiple waves of frog #extinction and #reintroduction on these smaller islands! πΈβ
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@LeafyHistory What about (for example) European tree frogs, and other plausibly native hero's?
@CFoix I've written another section on them! There was some early modern debate about the species! I have no local records to map, but do have a national-level record from the period for the tree frog and pool frog in Britain which I think is plausible. - Not much evidence to add since my last article on the topic really though! https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-journal/volume-27-number-4-october-2017/1056-08-frogs-in-pre-industrial-britain
