A short history of Scotland's bears
David Hetherington
Nature Networks Manager at the Cairngorms National Park Authority | LinkedIn Top Green Voice UK | Author of 'The Lynx and Us'
Following on from my previous post about Scotland's extinct elks, I thought I'd follow it up with another, this time on our long-lost brown bears.
We know from a variety of sources that Scotland once had brown bears. Firstly, their bones have been discovered at a variety of sites, from Dumfriesshire in the extreme south to Caithness in the far north. This includes a near complete skeleton found in the bone caves near Inchnadamph in the north west corner of the Highlands (where my profile photo was taken). The youngest carbon-date so far from these bones was around 2700 years old. As with the elks, this shouldn't be interpreted as being the date of their extinction in Scotland. The cultural evidence suggests a much more recent occurrence here.
We know from the surviving works of Roman writers that bears from Caledonia were revered and prized in the arena for their large size and ferocity. Indeed during the opening festivities of the Coliseum in AD80, a Caledonian bear was unleashed on a bound and defenceless criminal for the entertainment of 50,000 people!
Bears were also depicted on several Pictish stone carvings dating from around the 8th and 9th centuries AD, including from Shetland, Easter Ross, Angus and Perthshire. The Gaelic word for bear is mathan. This has given us the modern Scottish surname of Mathieson, which is an anglicisation of MacMathan, literally 'Son of Bear'.
We don't know exactly when bears became extinct in Scotland, but it's likely they fell victim, perhaps in the later Middle Ages, to a mixture of deforestation, over-hunting and persecution arising from their likely attacks on livestock. The Cairngorms area may have been the last part of Britain to retain landscape-scale woodland cover, and could well have been the last stronghold of the Scottish, and indeed British, bear.
However, the most recent example of a free-ranging member of this species to wander the wilds of Scotland (just as with the elk curiously enough) was an escaped male named Hercules. While being filmed for a TV advert on Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides in 1980, Hercules the tame bear gave his handler, Andy Robin, the slip and went missing for over 3 weeks. He was eventually spotted swimming in the sea, tranquilised and then reunited with Andy, very hungry but otherwise unharmed.
Freelance Ecologist/Avian Influenza Surveillance Sample Collector
7 年There's nothing makes you feel quite so alive as coming across fresh bear poo and paw prints while out on a woodland walk, and seeing where the bear took a bit out of a tree. Sadly I've only ever had that experience in Canada and Slovakia. I fear we may have a big enough struggle on our hands getting the lynx (and perhaps one day the wolf) reintroduced, but here's hoping.
Writer and Lecturer at University of the Highlands and Islands
8 年A nice piece, David. Returning bears to our landscapes would do a lot to enrich our ecosystems - they play such an important role in spreading seeds of fruit and nut species. They are the ultimate forest gardeners!
Owner at Greenbeard Forestry Limited
8 年Thanks for this Dave, i'm embarrassed to say i was asked when were bears present in Scotland last week by some Canadians walking through Brahan and i was very evasive in the answer dept.
Director, University lecturer and Consultant
8 年Bears combine enormous strength and charisma. I have been lucky enough to spend time in several European forests with wild bears and have always noted the affection which people hold them in. Even if, they can run faster, climb faster and swim faster than a human- which is bad news if you have upset them!