List of extinct animals of 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 British Isles. The list includes introduced species only where they were able to form self-sustaining colonies for a time. Only species extinct since the British Isles were 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.

See also the list of endangered species in the British Isles.

Extinct Species

Mammals

• Arctic fox - c. 10000 BC
• Arctic lemming - c. 8000 BC
• Aurochs - c. 1000 BC
• Boar - c. 1500 (reintroduced)
• Brown Bear - c. 1000 (may be as early as 500 BC)
• Coypu - 1987 (non-native)
• Elk (Moose) - c. 1500 BC
• European Beaver - c. 1300 (reintroduced)
• Gray whale - c. 1700
• Grey wolf - c. 1700
• Irish Elk - c. 6000 BC
• Lynx - c. 400
• Greater mouse-eared bat - 1990 (as resident)
• Muskrat - 1935 (non-native)
• Narrow-headed vole - c. 8000 BC
• Root Vole - c. 1500 BC
• Norway lemming - c. 8000 BC
• Pika - c. 8000 BC
• Reindeer - c. 6000 BC (reintroduced)
• Saiga Antelope - c. 10000 BC
• St Kilda House Mouse - c. 1930
• Tarpan - c. 7000 BC
• Wolverine - c. 6000 BC
• Woolly Mammoth - c. 10000 BC
• Woolly Rhinoceros -

Birds

• Barnacle Goose - c.1000 BC (as breeding bird, later recolonised)
• Black-tailed Godwit - 1885 (as breeding bird)
• Black Tern - 1885 (as breeding bird)
• Capercaillie (reintroduced)
• Common Crane - c.1620 (recolonised)
• Cory's Shearwater - c.1000 BC (as breeding bird)
• Dalmatian Pelican - c.1000 BC
• Eurasian Eagle Owl - c.1000 BC (some doubt if present naturally since Ice Age)
• Eskimo Curlew (never resident)
• Eurasian Spoonbill - c.1620 (as breeding bird)
• Great Auk - 1844
• Great Bittern - 1886 (recolonised 1911)
• Great Bustard - c.1650 (reintroduced 2004)
• Kentish Plover - c.1940 (as breeding bird)
• Little Bustard (as breeding bird)
• Osprey (later recolonised)
• Red-backed Shrike (as breeding bird)
• Ruff - 1871 (as breeding bird)
• White-tailed Eagle (reintroduced)
• Wryneck (as breeding bird)

Fish

• Burbot - 1972
• Houting

Reptiles

• European pond terrapin - c.3000 BC (reintroduced)

Amphibians

• Pool frog - 1993 (reintroduced)
• Agile frog - ≤ 1000 BP
• Moor frog - ≤ 1000 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

• Beautiful Merodon Hoverfly

Butterflies and moths

• Black-veined White - 1925
• The Conformist (moth) - 1880
• Essex Emerald Moth - 1991
• Flame Brocade (moth) - 1919
• Frosted Yellow (moth) - 1914
• Gypsy Moth - 1907
• Isle of Wight Wave (moth) - 1931
• Large Blue - 1979 (reintroduced)
• Large Chequered Skipper – ca.1989 (non-native, Channel Islands)
• Large Copper - 1865
• Large Tortoiseshell (may be recolonising)
• The Many Lined (moth) - 1875
• Map - ca.1914 (non-native)
• Mazarine Blue - 1906
• Orache Moth - 1915
• Reed Tussock (moth) - 1875
• Scarce Black Arches (moth) - 1898
• Schiffermulleria woodiella (moth) - 1829
• Small Ranunculus (moth) - 1937
• Speckled Beauty (moth) - 1885
• Union Rustic (moth) - 1919
• Viper's Bugloss (moth) - 1977
• White Prominent (moth) - 1865

Dragonflies and damselflies

• Dainty damselfly - 1953
• Norfolk damselfly - 1957
• Orange-spotted Emerald (dragonfly) - 1957

Purple Banana Octopus

Caddisflies

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

Reintroduction & Re-establishment

See also UK lists under reintroduction.

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. There are also plans to reintroduce the Wolf in Scotland. There are no plans to reintroduce Brown Bears.

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
• 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