List of extinct animals of the British Isles

See also: List of endangered species in the British Isles

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.

Extinct species

Mammals

• Arctic lemming – c. 8000 BC
• Aurochs – c. 1000 BC
• Beech marten – 19th century
• Brown bear – c. 1000 (may be as early as 500 BC)
• Cave lion – c. 10,000 BC
• Coypu – 1987 (non-native)
• Eurasian elk – Quaternary.
• Eurasian lynx – c. 400
• Gray whale – c. 500 BC
• Gray wolf – 1680 CE
• Greater mouse-eared bat – 1990 (as resident)
• Irish elk – c. 6000 BC
• Narrow-headed vole – c. 8000 BC
• Pika – c. 8000 BC
• Root vole – c. 1500 BC
• Saiga antelope – c. 10,000 BC
• Steppe lemming – c. 8000 BC
• Tarpan – c. 7000 BC
• Walrus – c. 1000 BC
• Wisent – c. 3000 BC
• Wolverine – c. 6000 BC
• Woolly mammoth – c. 10,000 BC
• Woolly rhinoceros – c. 10,000 BC

Birds

• Great White Pelican – c. 1000 BC
• Great Auk – 1844

Fish

• Burbot – 1972
• Houting

Amphibians

• Agile frog – ≤ 1000 BP
• Moor frog – ≤ 1000 BP

Reptiles

• European pond terrapin – ≤ 5000 BP

Insects

Beetles

• Agonum sahlbergi (ground beetle) – 1914
• Blue stag beetle – 19th century
• Graphoderus bilineatus (water beetle) – 1906
• Harpalus honestus (ground beetle) – 1905
• Horned dung beetle – 1957
• Ochthebius aeneus (water beetle) – 1913
• Platydema violaceum (tenebrionid) – 1957
• Rhantus aberratus (water beetle) – 1904
• Scybalicus oblongiusculus (ground beetle) – 1926
• Teretrius fabricii (histerid) – 1907

Bees, wasps and ants

• Andrena polita (mining bee) – 1934
• Apple bumblebee – 1864
• Cullum's bumblebee – 1941
• Eucera tuberculata (mining bee) – 1941
• Halictus maculatus (mining bee) – 1930
• Mellinus crabroneus (digger wasp) – c. 1950
• Odynerus reniformis (mason wasp) – 1915
• Odynerus simillimus (mason wasp) – 1905
• Short-haired bumblebee – 1989

Flies

• Merodon clavipes

Butterflies and moths

• Aporia crataegi, Black-veined White – 1925
• Borkhausenia minutella – 1950
• The Conformist (moth) – 1880
• Essex Emerald Moth – 1991
• Euclemensia woodiella (moth) – 1829
• Flame Brocade (moth) – 1919
• Frosted Yellow (moth) – 1914
• Gypsy Moth – 1907
• Isle of Wight Wave (moth) – 1931
• Large Chequered Skipper – c. 1989 (non-native, Channel Islands)
• Large Copper – 1865
• The Many Lined (moth) – 1875
• Map – c. 1914 (non-native)
• Mazarine Blue – 1906
• Orache Moth – 1915
• Reed Tussock (moth) – 1875
• Scarce Black Arches (moth) – 1898
• Small Ranunculus (moth) – 1937
• Speckled Beauty (moth) – 1885
• Union Rustic (moth) – 1919
• Viper's Bugloss (moth) – 1977
• White Prominent (moth) – 1865

Dragonflies and damselflies

• Norfolk damselfly – 1957
• Orange-spotted Emerald (dragonfly) – 1957

Caddisflies

• Hydropsyche bulgaromanorum (caddis fly) – 1926
• Hydropsyche exocellata (caddis fly) – 1901

Crustaceans

• Artemia salina (brine shrimp) – after 1758

Molluscs

Land snails

• Fruticicola fruticum
• Cernuella neglecta

Reintroduction and re-establishment

Main article: Reintroduction#United Kingdom

White-tailed Eagle has been successfully re-established on the west coast of Scotland. Red Kite and Osprey 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.

There are plans to reintroduce European Beaver to parts of Britain, especially Scotland where a five year trial reintroduction at Knapdale in Argyll started in 2009. In 2008, Moose were reintroduced into the Highlands of Scotland. Reindeer was re-established in 1952, approximately 150-170 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.

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.

See also

• List of British mammals
• Extinct animals from the Isle of Man
• List of extinct animals of Europe
• Invasive species in the British Isles

References

• A Short History of the British Mammal Fauna
• The History of British Birds
• Buglife on bumblebees
• Joint Nature Conservation Committee - Invertebrates extinct in the last 100 years