02/08/10

Brown Bear

Does anybody know when the last recorded wild brown bear was seen in the UK? Did it happen long before anybody paid attention to species loss?

Wiki says 500AD, a few other sources suggest up to 1000AD, but none later than that, most agree they were hunted to extinction, I assume nobody was too bothered.

DavidBrown said:

Does anybody know when the last recorded wild brown bear was seen in the UK? Did it happen long before anybody paid attention to species loss?

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I believe bears became extinct in Britain at some point during the 10th century- they were the fifth large mammal to be wiped out by hunting in Britain. I doubt many people were concerned with species loss at the time, unfortunately.

I can't remember where I heard it, but I think the Romans were very keen on 'Caledonian bears' for the arena, and we sold them all we could get.