Notable Holocene Faunal Changes

Britain’s present fauna is comparatively impoverished when compared with what it could or perhaps should, be. There are two principle reasons for this:
· The formation of the English Channel.
· The influence of man.

The Formation of the English Channel

The Straits of Dover are a relatively young feature when compared with the Western Channel and the North Sea. The English Channel was an arm of the Atlantic Ocean throughout most of the Ice-age periods; however, there were times when sea level was considerably lower than it is today. During the Devensian, the sea almost certainly abandoned the whole of the English Channel corresponding to a fall in sea level of least 100m. As a result the shoreline retreated to a position between Cornwall and Brittany, with the temporarily emergent Channel floor being drained to the West by a massive Seine-Solent river system. At times the discharge of this system was probably very great because of periodic inputs of large volumes of water that escaped southwards along the line of the Straits of Dover from extensive pro-glacial lakes dammed up in the southern North Sea Basin in front of the Scandinavian ice sheet.

The extremely high discharges achieved by the English Channel drainage system during the Wolstonian and Devensian caused a marked incision. This is reflected in a well-defined palaeo-valley system running down the floor of the Channel with a number of deep enclosed basins. The retreat of the Devensian ice sheets resulted in a marine transgression with the sea level rising by over 100m in the last 14,000 years. The major rise in sea level over this period is generally known as the Flandrian or post-glacial transgression.

During the early part of the Flandrian transgression sea level change is considered to have been extremely rapid, rising from below –100m at a 14,000BP to reach about –20m by 8000BP. As a consequence, the sea advanced quickly up the Channel and through the Straits of Dover by 9600BP achieving the final separation from the Continent in about 8600BP.

The Influence of Man

Starr Carr in Yorkshire was a typical Mesolithic site in England. Around 9,500BP about 20 hunter-gatherers inhabited the site. They used stone axes and adzes to fell trees, and made a variety of barbed bone and antler spear points. Many other useful tools were made of antler. Hunting was the main activity, with Red Deer, Moose, Aurochs, and Roe Deer being the main prey. Hunters used long wooden arrows tipped with small flint blades that were set in the shaft with tree resin. Dogs assisted in hunting. Hazelnuts were collected in the autumn and perhaps stored. Charred Hazel nuts and sloes from this same period have been recovered from a rock shelter at Symonds Yat, Herefordshire.

The Holocene Extinctions

A few notable species that arrived in Britain before it was cut off from Continental Europe subsequently died out during the Holocene. Most were probably lost due directly or indirectly to man’s actions, through direct persecution or habitat changes. Among the mammals, six large herbivores have been lost since about 10,500BP; the Horse, Wild Boar, Aurochs, Reindeer, Moose and Irish Elk, and three carnivores; the Wolf, Brown Bear and Lynx. The Beaver has also been lost. The distributions of the Wild Cat, Polecat, Pine Marten have been greatly reduced.

Bone finds indicate that the Dalmatian Pelican, formerly bred near the Iron Age lake village at what is now Glastonbury. It may still have occurred as a winter vagrant in early Anglo-Saxon England. The Griffon Vulture or the Egyptian Vulture are possible Anglo-Saxon species. The Eagle Owl recorded in England prior to 1930, and named in Old Latin to Old English glossaries from the 8th century could have occurred in the extensive Anglo-Saxon forests. The Great Bustard bred in England until 1832. The Great Auk, extinct in Britain by 1840 and world wide by 1844, would have been known in many coastal areas. Some of the Anglo-Saxon breeding birds such as the Crane and Spoonbill are now only rare breeders or vagrants.

Mammals

Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus)

Based on photo by V. Mourre

Irish Elk

The Irish Elk is misnamed, for it was neither exclusively Irish nor was it an Elk (or Moose). Recent (September 2005) DNA studies have shown that its nearest living relative is the Fallow Deer. It was about the size of the modern Elk, weighing over 800kg with a height of around 2.1m at the shoulder, but the males grew the largest antlers of any extinct or extant deer known, in some specimens 3.65m across. The antlers differed from those of the modern Elk, in that the main part was a massive single sheet from which arose a series of pointed projections, or tines. The immense size of its antlers must have prevented it from inhabiting the dense forest. Instead it must have dwelt on heath-clad hills, there, armed with the most powerful weapons of self-defence, against the assaults of any single aggressor.

Despite its common name the Irish Elk most likely originated in Siberia and moved west to northwestern Europe. It eventually ranged throughout Europe, northern Asia and northern Africa, and a related form is known from China. The name "Irish" has stuck because excellent, well-preserved fossils of the giant deer are especially common in lake sediments and peat bogs in Ireland. Several earlier species of Megaloceros are known.

The Irish Elk is thought to have disappeared from most of the British Isles around 11,000BP, during the Younger Dryas. Recently however remains from Southwest Scotland and the Isle of Man have been dated to 9,400 and 9,200 years ago respectively. Perhaps these areas offered the creatures a moderate climate at the time, or perhaps the species was still relatively widespread but remains unrecorded. These latter dated animals were smaller than their predecessors, indicating that climatic and environmental changes were affecting them. These changes, rather than hunting by man probably lead to their extinction in the UK soon after 9,000 BP. The Irish Elk appears to have made its last stand in the Urals of western Siberia where is survived until at least 5,700 B.C., some 3,000 years after the ice sheets receded. Some authors claim that it is possible that the Irish Elk survived as late as 700 or even 500BC in continental Europe, but such claims are based on potentially erroneous interpretations of stylized pictorial representations of deer.

Elk (Alces alces)

Elk

The Elk (or Moose as it is known in North America) was a post-glacial inhabitant of Britain. It is a creature of open forests and wetlands and would have occurred along the Severn Valley and in the lower lying marshy areas.

Early man hunted the Elk in Britain. The almost complete skeleton of an Elk, killed by pursing hunters and dating to 12,500 BP was discovered in Lancashire. Hunting and fishing spears were still embedded in the leg bones, the earliest evidence for man living so far north in the UK. The remains were in the silted up bed of a prehistoric pool, into which the hapless animal had been pursued, but from which the hunters were unable to extract it. Some 3,000 years later Elk also featured in the diet of hunter-gathers at Starr Carr in North Yorkshire.

The last confirmed UK date for Elk is 3,925BP, in the Bronze Age.

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)

Reindeer

As the final ice sheets retreated across the British landscape, the tundra living Reindeer followed closely behind. They were however on the limits of their range in most of lowland Britain, for reindeer in Britain were smaller than their counterparts in Europe, probably due to food-stress during the summer and early autumn periods of the year.

Reindeer were important human food items. Their bones are often common in cave deposits. In Kitley Caves, Yealmpton, Devon, a Reindeer bone from the breccia has been dated to 9670 BP. The last confirmed date for Reindeer in Britain is 8,300 BP, after which they died out, probably due to habitat change associated with the warming post-glacial climate.

There were failed reintroduction attempts in 18th century at Dunkeld, in Orkney and the Forest of Mar. Successfully reintroduced between 1952 and 1961 in the Cairngorm, three herds now total 70-80 individuals.

Aurochs (Bos primigenius)

Aurochs Horns

Photo: Walter Frisch

'Heck' bull

Aurochs are the ancestors of present-day domestic cattle. With a body length of 3m, a shoulder height of nearly 2m and a weight of up to 1,000kg, they were very large compared with modern cartte. Females were 20% smaller than males. Cave paintings and written descriptions show that in northern Europe, the adult males were black-brown with a light streak along the back. This pelage contrasted with a whitish circle around the chin and muzzle.

After the ice age Aurochs were spread across Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. They lived on the plains and at the forest's edge. Their populations were gradually reduced as people hunted them and civilization destroyed their habitats.

Recently a site at Fengate, Peterborough has yielded part of the skull of an Aurochs dating to around 2500BC; the Neolithic period. The skull was buried in a large, deep pit. Part of the skull had been removed but the horns were left attached. This might have been a deliberate act, probably as some kind of ceremony or ritual. It is well known that hunter-gatherer societies revered and even worshipped the animals they hunted. Although finds of this kind are rare, those that have been previously unearthed support this view. The Aurochs were probably already rare by the time of the burial at Fengate, so the killing of such a magnificent creature was likely to have been of great significance to the Neolithic inhabitants of the area.

Aurochs skull with fatal injury to the brain inflicted by a prehistoric hunter

At a site in Uxbridge the skeleton of an almost complete Aurochs, buried in about 1800BC, was excavated. Upon examination it was discovered that the flint arrowheads, which would have been used to hunt the animal, had been left in the carcass, again was this a ritual killing, and the missing leg bones and horns kept as trophies?

Shifting beach deposits at Porlock Bay in North Somerset have yielded the partial remains of an Aurochs. The bones date to approximately 1500 BC and are thought to be from a bull. He was probably at least 10 years old, but could have been much older. During his life the Aurochs suffered from a number of injuries, the results of which can be seen on some of his bones. There is however no evidence on the bones to suggest that this animal was killed or butchered by Bronze Age farming people living in the area at the time.

It is probable that the last British Aurochs was killed or died during the Roman period, however they may have survived in places like Caithness until the 9th or 10th century AD. The last representative of the species died in 1627 in a Polish game preserve. Primitive races of cattle still live in the Scottish Highlands and other parts of Europe and there are herds of ‘wild’ white cattle in places such as Chillingham in Northumberland. These 'wild' cattle probably retain a similar social structure to the Aurochs, but are not physically similar. Heck cattle were developed in the early 20th century by the Heck brothers in Germany in an attempt to breed back modern cattle to their ancestral form, the Aurochs.

Chillingham Bull

Tarpan/Wild Horse (Equus ferus/caballus)

Przewalski Horse

The Wild Horses of Ice Age Europe were similar to Przewalski Horse, a species that until recently roamed the steppes of central Asia. Horses were the most abundant faunal remain recovered from Gough's Cave, indicating that these animals were an important food item for the inhabitants of the site. Based on the archaeological record it appears that the majority of the late Ice-age hunters food must have come from animal matter, with horse meat being the most common item of consumption, although Reindeer, Mammoth, hares and birds also contributed to their diet.

An engraving of a horse on a fragment of rib found at Creswell Crags is the only piece of such artwork known in Britain. It is about 12,500 years old. Similar works of art are known from Late Magdalenian sites in the Paris Basin, France. Hunters tracking animals may have brought this object to Creswell Crags during the Late Upper Palaeolithic. A group of four broken cheek teeth from horse, from Creswell Crags, provide direct evidence of butchery by people. The teeth are about 12,000 years old. At this time all horses were wild animals hunted for food and raw materials such as their skin and bones, as well as sinews and tendons which could be used to make string.

Etching of a Horse on a rib bone

Although it is often claimed that the ‘wild’ horses of Exmoor or other remote areas are descended from truly wild post-glacial horses, there is little evidence to support this assertion. Indeed there appears to be a gap in the fossil record of horses in Britain between about 9770BP and the Neolithic (4170BP). Koniks ponies from Poland are a stocky and hardy breed that shows many of the characteristics of the Tarpan. Koniks have proved to be ideally adapted to year-round grazing on grassland and wetland habitats and they have been used by several conservation organisations to help manage nature reserves both in Britain and Europe.

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............................................Ex................. Exmoor Pony...........................................................................................................................Konig Pony

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

Photo: Richard Bartz, Munich

Wild Boar

Whilst Wild Boar remains are commonly encountered in post-glacial deposits there is ample evidence of the existence of the Wild Boar in Britain in historic times. The Wild Boar existed in Britain long after the Roman occupation. In the 9th century representations of hunting scenes exist. At the time of the Norman Conquest very severe laws were passed against any one who would kill a deer or a Wild Boar, except in legitimate chase.

Old stone monuments and ancient documents show by illustration that this animal was hunted in a wild state throughout the British Islands. From laws passed for his preservation and for regulating the hunting season, it would appear that this species of sport was carried on down to the 11th century, and some documents would bring the date down to the 16th century. Lydekker, in his "British Mammals" in Allan's Naturalists' Library, says:"Between the years 1153 and 1165 we find Robert de Avenel, when granting to the monks of Melrose Abbey the right of pasturage over the lands of Eskdale, especially reserving to himself the right of hunting Wild Boar and deer. There is actual evidence of a Boar hunt taking place at this very time in the same district." The same author says that there is documentary evidence that Wild Boar existed in England in 1573 in Chartley Park, Staffordshire. An absolute date of 1683 has been suggested as the time when the Wild Boar finally became extinct in Britain.

Following the escape of animals from Wild Boar farms, free-living and expanding populations have become established in Kent, East Sussex, Dorset and Gloucestershire, with occasional sighting in other counties and Scotland.

Lynx (Lynx lynx)

Photo: Marcus Pietrzak

Lynx

The Lynx was once a native of the greater part of Britain. It is confined to forests where it hunts mainly deer.

Records for Lynx in the Creswell Crags area of Derbyshire have come from Robin Hood Cave, Langwith Basset Cave, Steetley Cave and Yew Tree Cave. All of these specimens are undated. However the precise radiocarbon date for a specimen from Dog Hole Fissure is 9,570 ± 60 years ago. This latter record provides an indication of how quickly forest conditions had become re-established in the Creswell area after the end of the Last Ice Age. In Kitley Caves, Yealmpton, Devon, a Lynx bone from the cave earth has been dated to 8930 +/- 90 radiocarbon years.

Lynx bones found at Allt nan Uamh near Inchnadamph, Sutherlandshire, in deposits containing blackened and burnt hearthstones of Neolithic fires, vouch for its relatively late presence in Scotland, but there is no written evidence of it. Dating of bones found in Moughton Fell Fissure Cave near Settle (since destroyed by quarrying) showed he Lynx lived there in Roman times, between AD80 and AD320. Kinsey Cave in the Yorkshire Dales has yielded bones from an animal which probably lived between AD425 and AD600 – making it the most recent record of Lynx in the UK.

There are increasing claims and perhaps some evidence that Lynx have recently been released in to the the wild in parts of Britain and may once again be breeding here.

Brown Bear (Ursus arctos)

Photo: www.fapas.es

Brown Bear

The Brown Bear is thought to have become extinct in Britain around AD 900. Its elimination was caused by loss of habitat (it requires a very large area of undisturbed woodland) but was also related to its highly territorial habit; Brown Bears return repeatedly to fruits and berries within their home territory, making them an easy prey for hunters.

Wolf (Canis lupus)

Wolf

In the British Isles Wolves were numerous when the Romans arrived, although it was not known how widespread they were during Anglo-Saxon time. However, records of Wolf presence in medieval Britain are clearer, with descriptions of numbers mainly being confined to the Welsh border counties and the north. In the 10th century King Edgar of England imposed an annual tribute of 300 Wolves on the Welsh King Lundwall.

Subsequent records clearly indicate its presence in England at least until the 14th century where encounters with humans (i.e. hunting) became more rare, habitat loss in the form of deforestation being the main cause in its decline. The last Wolf south of the Scottish border was believed to have been killed sometime in the 1480's. However there is a story that in the 1540s the young Lady Jane Grey, future Queen of England, was confronted by a frenzied Wolf whilst walking home to Bradgate House in Leicestershire. The animal had already attacked a child, and Jane and her female companion, armed only with a small hunting knife and a stick, had to struggle hard to kill it.

In Scotland during the 15th century under James I, the Wolf was still perceived as a pest reaching its peak during the reign of Queen Mary Stuart, where laws were passed forcing all Scottish men to participate in Wolf hunting three times a year. Records were frequent in the 1600's although there was an increased difficulty in obtaining their skins. The various methods of hunting them had not exterminated the creature, so more extreme measures were taken. There are stories of the forests of Rannoch and Lochaber being deliberately burned in order to destroy the Wolf's dens and deny them cover. In the Highlands this trend was reflected in the once vast Caledonian Pine Forest (originally 1.5 million ha) that started to dwindle and by 1600 was down to 10% of its original state (170,000 ha).

The last positive record of Wolf presence was in Sutherland in 1691, where the very large sum of £6.13s was paid for the animal. Since that time there has been a barrage of supposed 'last Wolf' sightings which concluded in 1743 at Tomatin in the Findhorn Valley, where a Wolf was shot after allegedly devouring two children.

It was only after the Wolf's extinction that the now traditional system of day and night grazing was established as the tending of cattle became unnecessary.

Re-introduction has been suggested, but there are many obstacles to overcome before the Wolf could be allowed to once again roam the British countryside.

Beaver (Castor fibor)

Photo by Per Harald Olsen

Beaver

Beaver bones of various ages are found throughout Britain. The femur of an immature Beaver was excavated from Dog Hole Fissure, Creswell Crags, in 1978. Although not directly dated, this individual is likely to date to the Mesolithic (c.10,000 years BP) judging from the total fauna excavated. It is unknown how the bone came to be introduced into the fissure. People may have been responsible. Recently Beaver bones, dating back six to eight thousand years, have been unearthed along Chesil Beach.

The presence of Beavers in to historic times is born out by the presence of place names appertaining to the presence of these distinctive and commercially important animals. Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire was originally called Beverlac, the place or lake of beavers, with which animals the neighbouring river Hull abounded. Nearer to home in the context of this essay is Bevere Island on the Severn at Grimley. Bevere is a direct derivation of ‘Beaver Island’.

In Britain, Beavers were hunted to extinction in the Middle Ages due to the value of castoreum (a glandular secretion), their pelts and their tails which were commonly eaten. The last record of a Beaver in England dates to 1526.

The Beaver is likely to be re-introduced in the near future. Two enclosed but otherwise free-living groups are already present in Gloucestershire and Kent.

Birds

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........................................................................................................Photo: Doug Janson...............................................................................

.............................................................................Dalmatian Pelican....................................................................................................Great Auk

Several bird species were lost before the more general late twentieth century declines in bird numbers due to changing agricultural practices. These early losses were exclusively large species that required extensive tracts of suitable habitat or were particularly vulnerable to over hunting. A number of species including the Dalmatian Pelican and the Barnacle Goose were lost in early historic times, with others being lost in recent historic times due to the advent of the guns and more latterly egg and specimen collecting. This latter group inclue the Great Auk, the last UK sepcimen of which was killed on St Kilda in 1840. The last known sighting of the species was in Newfoundland in 1852.

Species such as the White-tailed Sea Eagle, Osprey, Goshawk, Red Kite and Eagle Owl that were, until very recently, extinct or very rare in the UK, bred widely in Anglo-Saxon England, the Red Kite in considerable numbers. All the aforementioned are recovering their numbers due to strict legal protection and re-introduction campaigns.

The Holocene Absences

In addition to a range of species that re-colonised Britain at the end of the Devensian glaciation but were subsequently exterminated or otherwise disappeared, a range of species that had occurred here in other interglacial periods failed to reappear. The main reason appears to be the influence of Modern Man (Home sapiens). Many of these 'missing' species were hunted by early human species, for example Home erectus, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo neanderthalensis, in Britain and Europe, but they were not exterminated, They only disappeared when Homo sapiens, with his more sophisticated hunting tools and techniques, entered Europe from Africa approximately between 45,000 and 50,000 years ago. These missing species 'sat-out' each of the glaciations in the Iberian, Italian and Balkan peninsulas, or Turkey and the Middle East. After each glaciation they returned to western and middle Europe, as warm, moist interglacial conditions spread broad-leafed forests back into the region.

Straight-tusked Elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus)

Straight-tusked Elephant

The Straight-tusked Elephant's nearest living relative is the Indian, rather than the African Elephant. They probably lived in small herds of about 5-15 individuals. At up to 9 tonnes in weight, they were approximately twice the size of the largest modern African Elephant. They were adapted to the open deciduous forests of interglacials in Europe. They probably paid an important role in keeping a varied cover pattern in the forests, creating and maintaining clearings in which grazing animals such as deer and Aurochs could feed.

Remains of the Straight-tusked Elephant are relatively common. Sometimes they are found in association with the stone tools that early man used to butcher them, but not necessarily kill them, for example at a site in central Italy two stone flakes partly covered in birch-bark-tar and a third without tar on it were discovered in association with the bones of a young adult female Straight-tusked Elephant.

The Straight-tusked Elephant was probably extinct by about 35,000 years ago.

Narrow-nosed/Steppe Rhino (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus)

Narrow-nosed Rhino

The Narrow-nosed Rhinoceros was one of the characteristic large mammals of the warm interglacial periods of the later Pleistocene and appears to have been tolerant of a wide range of temperate environments. This rhinoceros is commonly associated with the Straight-tusked Elephant and appears to have been capable of both grazing and browsing. It is assocaited with more open habitats than Merck's Rhino.

Merck's/Forest Rhino (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis)

Merck's Rhino

Merck's Rhino was primarily a browser and so lived in forest environments.. The living, but very rare, Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is a close living relative of the Stephanorhinus rhinos.

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)

Hippopotami

Hippos were extinct in Europe by about 25,000 years ago but survived in Africa. Prior to that time they lived in Britain and other parts of Europe in any area where the water did not freeze during winter.

Steppe Bison (Bison priscus)

Steppe Bison Skull

The Steppe Bison was common from western Europe to eastern Asia from about 400,000 years ago. Very large forms developed in Siberia and North America, where descended bison species became a common faunal element after they had crossed the Beringian land bridge. They were the ancestors of the Wisent (Bison bonsasus) in Europe. Steppe Bison remains are common in Britain. Whilst there is no doubt that Steppe Bison was hunted by early man, it is possible that their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene was brouught about by the environmental change and/or their repalcemement by the more modern Bison species in the both the Old and New Worlds. The fact that the Wisent did not occur in Britain in the Holocene is probably due however to the presence of Modern Man.

The Steppe Bison was a powerful animal that often stood at least 2 m at the withers. It probably lived in herds, as do the living American and European species. Its horns pointed away from the skull at approximately square angles and were upwardly curved. The bony horn cores alone could reach a span of 1.20 m and were therefore very large in comparison with those of the living Bison species. The horn sheaths added some length to this figure, so that the Steppe Bison was indeed unfit to live in forests.

The Steppe Bison had become extinct by the end of the last Glacial. Before that time, it was portrayed by early man. An ivory sculpture was found in the Vogelherd Cave in Germany. Images from Paleolithic caves provide many insights into the appearance and behaviour of steppe bison. Perhaps the most spectacular groupings are the dozen or more paintings at Altamira Cave in Spain and a cluster of images at Font de Gaume, France. Regarding behaviour of the species, examples include an engraved bone fragment from Le Morin showing two adults and a calf running; bulls charging each other during the rut (one with raised tail) on the wall of Le Portel Cave; two carefully modeled clay bison, about 60 cm long at Tuc d'Audoubert depicting a male following a female. Perhaps the most striking scene in Paleolithic cave art is on the wall of Lascaux Cave. It consists of a man falling back with arms outstretched before a charging bison that has been wounded and is spilling its entrails. A similar scene, attesting to the aggressiveness of steppe bison confronted by people, is depicted at Villars.

(Cave) Lion (Panthera leo)

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....................................................................................Cave Lion..............................................................................................................................................Lion

The Cave Lion (Panthera leo spelaea) was a subspecies of the Atlas (=Barbary) Lion (Panthera leo leo). It was about 25% larger than its African relatives but otherwise was quite similar. It inhabited Britain and Europe.from about 600,000 to 10,000 years ago, although there are some indications it may have existed as recently as 2,000 years ago, in the Balkans. It ranged across Europe and Asia. Its habitat was the steppes in the north, and the semi-arid deserts in the south. It is known from Palaeolithic cave paintings, ivory carvings, and clay busts. These representations indicate that cave lions had protruding ears, tufted tails, faint tiger-like stripes, and that at least some males had a "ruff" or small mane around their neck. The lions of Africa did not evolve their familiar mane until relatively recently and most probably after the split with the Cave Lion. The Atlas Lion itself is recently extinct in the wild, but survives in captivity. Both the Atlas Lion and the Cave Lion occurred in southerm Europe at the end of the last glacial phase, however recent DNA analysis has indicated that any inter-breeding between the two subspecies did not leave any trace of Cave Lion 'blood' in extant lions. It should benoted however that the Atlas Lion was not included in this analysis.

Cave Lions preyed on the large, herbivorous animals of their time. Their extinction may have been related to the loss of thier prey species. Cave paintings and remains found in the refuse piles of ancient camp sites indicate that they were hunted by early humans, which may have also contributed to their demise.

The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) used to live in eastern Europe until recent times. These lions were present in the Balkans in the middle of the first millennium B.C. and they are believed to have died out in Greece in AD80-100. It remained widespread elsewhere in the near and middle east until the mid-1800s when the advent of firearms led to its extinction over large areas. By the late 1800s the lion had disappeared from Turkey. The last remnants of the Asiatic Lion, approximately 300 individuals, survive live in the Gir Forest of western India.

Spotted/Cave Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta)

Spotted Hyaena

The hyaenas of the Devensian glacial period were markedly larger than those living in Africa today. However, they were otherwise very similar. Recent studies have shown that the extinct Cave Hyaena of Europe was genetically very close to the its extant African cousin, the size difference being due its adaption to a colder climate in parts of Europe. Even more recnt studies have indicated that the Cave Hyaena may not even have been a subspecies of the Spotted Hyaena and that there are greater genetic differences between extant southern and northern African populations than there is between the northern population and the extint Cave Hyaena.

The Cave Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) first appeared in Europe around 500,000 years ago and lived up to the near close of the last glaciation. They coexisted with Neanderthals and Modern Man. Cave paintings have been found depicting these beasts with spots. Certainly, these beasts were feared and avoided at all costs due to the danger of an unfortunate meeting. The spots offer an insight to what they may have looked like and scientists agree that the closest living relative to the Giant European Cave Hyena is the African Spotted Hyena. Fossil remains discovered in Great Britain and Alpine regions indicate these locations were home to the largest of the Giant Cave Hyenas.

The Cave Hyaena measured close to 40 inches high at its shoulders. It weighed anywhere from 175 to up to 285 pounds. British and Alpine specimens were the largest. These animals were nocturnal apex predators that lived in caves, where they also reared their young. They hunted in packs of 10 to 25 animals and also scavenged on carrion at all opportunities. Many of the bones of animals found in caves are scratched by gnaw marks from hyaena. Cave floor deposits indicate a varied diet of deer, Wild Boar, Horse, Bison, Woolly Mammoth and Woolly Rhino.

Their extinction is likely to have occurred between 20,000 and 10,000 years B.P.