This is a list of extinct animals of the British Isles. Only a small number of these are globally extinct, most famously the Irish elk, great auk and woolly mammoth. Most of the remainder survive to some extent outside the islands. The list includes introduced species only where they were able to form self-sustaining colonies for a time. Only species extinct since Great Britain was separated from mainland Europe are included. The date beside each species is the last date when a specimen was observed in the wild, or where this is not known, the approximate date of extinction. The list is complete for mammals, reptiles, freshwater fish and amphibians.
Mammals
- Arctic lemming â€" c. 8000 BC
- †Aurochs â€" c. 1000 BC
- †Cave bear - c. 15,000 BC
- Coypu â€" 1978 (non-native)
- Elk Alces alces â€" c. 1500 BC
- Eurasian beaver â€" 1526
- Eurasian brown bear â€" c. 1000 AD
- Eurasian lynx â€" c. AD 400
- Grey whale â€" c. 598 BC
- Eurasian wolf â€" AD 1680 in Britain, AD 1786 in Ireland
- †Irish elk â€" c. 6000 BC
- Narrow-headed vole â€" c. 8000 BC
- Steppe pika â€" c. 8000 BC
- Root vole â€" c. 1500 BC
- Saiga antelope â€" c. 10,000 BC
- Steppe lemming â€" c. 8000 BC
- †Tarpan â€" c. 7000 BC
- Walrus â€" c. 1000 BC
- Wisent â€" c. 3000 BC
- Wolverine â€" c. 6000 BC
- †Woolly mammoth â€" c. 10,000 BC
- †Woolly rhinoceros â€" c. 10,000 BC
- †Cave lion â€" c. 10,000 BC
Birds
- Fea's Petrel - Iron Age
- Dalmatian pelican â€" c. 1000 BC
- Eurasian spoonbill - 15th century
- Little egret - late medieval
- Eurasian bittern - 1885
- Osprey - 1916
- White-tailed eagle - 1916
- Western marsh harrier - late 19th century
- Northern goshawk - late 19th century
- Western capercaillie - 1780s
- Great bustard - 19th century
- Common crane - late medieval
- Pied avocet - 19th century
- Kentish plover - 20th century
- †Great auk â€" 1844
- White stork-1416
- Red-backed shrike - 1989 (as a breeding bird)
- Wryneck (as a breeding bird)
Fish
- †Houting
- Burbot
Amphibians
- Agile frog â€" c. 1000 AD
- Moor frog â€" c. 1000 AD
- European tree frog - 1986
Reptiles
- European pond terrapin â€" ≤ 3000 BC
Insects
Beetles
- Agonum sahlbergi (ground beetle) â€" 1914
- Blue stag beetle â€" 19th century
- Graphoderus bilineatus (water beetle) â€" 1906
- Harpalus honestus (ground beetle) â€" 1905
- Horned dung beetle â€" 1957
- Ochthebius aeneus (water beetle) â€" 1913
- Platydema violaceum (tenebrionid) â€" 1957
- Rhantus aberratus (water beetle) â€" 1904
- Scybalicus oblongiusculus (ground beetle) â€" 1926
- Teretrius fabricii (histerid) â€" 1907
Bees, wasps and ants
- Andrena polita (mining bee) â€" 1934
- Bombus pomorum, apple bumblebee â€" 1864
- Bombus cullumanus, Cullum's bumblebee â€" 1941
- Eucera tuberculata (mining bee) â€" 1941
- Halictus maculatus (mining bee) â€" 1930
- Mellinus crabroneus (digger wasp) â€" c. 1950
- Odynerus reniformis (mason wasp) â€" 1915
- Odynerus simillimus (mason wasp) â€" 1905
- Short-haired bumblebee â€" 1989
Flies
- Merodon clavipes
Butterflies and moths
General reference: Waring et al., 2009.
- Aporia crataegi, black-veined white â€" 1925
- Borkhausenia minutella â€" 1950
- Conformist (moth) â€"
- Euclemensia woodiella (moth) â€" 1829
- Flame brocade (moth) â€" 1919
- Frosted yellow (moth) â€" 1914
- Gypsy moth â€" 1907; reappeared 1995
- Isle of Wight wave (moth) â€" 1931
- Large chequered skipper â€" c. 1989 (non-native, Channel Islands)
- Large copper â€" 1865
- Many-lined (moth) â€" 1875
- Map â€" c. 1914 (non-native)
- Mazarine blue â€" 1906
- Orache moth â€" 1915
- Reed tussock (moth) â€" 1875
- Scarce black arches (moth) â€" 1898 (transitory resident)
- Speckled beauty (moth) â€" 1898
- Union rustic (moth) â€" 1919
- Viper's bugloss (moth) â€"1969
Dragonflies and damselflies
- Norfolk damselfly â€" 1957
- Orange-spotted emerald (dragonfly) â€" 1957
Caddisflies
- Hydropsyche bulgaromanorum (caddis fly) â€" 1926
- Hydropsyche exocellata (caddis fly) â€" 1901
Crustaceans
- Artemia salina (brine shrimp) â€" after 1758
Molluscs
Land snails
- Fruticicola fruticum
- Cernuella neglecta
†â€" Species is extinct worldwide
Reintroduction and re-establishment
The white-tailed eagle has been successfully re-established on the west coast of Scotland. Red kites have been successfully re-established in parts of England and Scotland. Ongoing projects involve both these species; corncrake into parts of England and Scotland; great bustard on Salisbury Plain.
European beaver have been reintroduced to parts of Scotland, and there are plans to bring them back to other parts of Britain. A five-year trial reintroduction at Knapdale in Argyll started in 2009 and concluded in 2014. A few hundred beavers live wild in the Tay river basin, as a result of escapes from a wildlife park. A similar reintroduction trial is being undertaken on the River Otter in Devon, England. In 2016, beavers were recognised as a British native species, and will be protected under law.
In 2008, moose were released into a fenced reserve on the Alladale Estate in the Highlands of Scotland. Reindeer were re-established in 1952, approximately 150â€"170 reindeer living around the Cairngorms region in Scotland.
The northern clade pool frog was reintroduced from Swedish stock in 2005, to a single site in Norfolk, England, following detailed research to prove that it had been native prior to its extinction around 1993.
The large blue butterfly has been successfully re-established from Swedish stock at a number of sites, but few of these are open-access. There are also several successful cases of the establishment of new populations of heath fritillary.
There have been calls for the reintroduction of the lynx, brown bear and grey wolf to the UK.
See also
- List of mammals of the British Isles
- Extinct animals from the Isle of Man
- List of extinct animals of Europe
- Introduced species of the British Isles
References
Further reading
- A Short History of the British Mammal Fauna (archived)
- The History of British Birds
- Buglife on bumblebees
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee â€" Invertebrates extinct in the last 100 yearsvvnoljv;sfolzdfbionszfibkn sfn k;l