When did bears become extinct in England?

[Yashca]

I was reading about Elizabethan England the other day, specifically about Christopher Marlowe and the theatre, and the book I was reading mentioned that in the late 1500's bear baiting was still performed in London.

Now, this fired my interest, not for the baiting, but because I realised I had no idea what species of bear used to exist in England, and when it became extinct. I did a bit of research, and apparently the bear found in the UK was a sub-species of the brown bear, which apparently became extinct about 1000 years ago, so presumably the bears used in London must have been brought over from Europe.

But I would like to know more, does anyone know a good book or something similar where I could find out about the bears historical range, historical references to it etc.,?

[valleyforge]

Hi Yashca ... good question in an area that greatly interests me too.

There is archaeological evidence for brown bears in Britain during the mesolithic and neolithic periods, being hunted then by man for both meat and fur.

Some sources suggest that bears continued to exist in scattered wildwood and forest remnants in Scotland until the Roman period, with Caledonian Bears being sent to Rome for arena fighting.

I don't believe a date for the final elimination of native bears from mainland Britain is known, but it's generally thought that they'd gone before the time of the Anglo-Saxon influxes, so certainly those around in Elizabethan times were imports for entertainment purposes.

It was almost certainly the first of the large indigenous predators to be eliminated by man in what is now the UK, pre-dating by some long way the wolf and lynx of course.

I don't know of any reference work dealing exclusively with bears, but you might find 'Silent Fields' by Roger Lovegrove an interesting read:
Silent Fields: The long decline of a nation's wildlife: Amazon.co.uk: Roger Lovegrove: Books

[vipes]

I always assumed the bears imported for Europe, yes.

I had no clue we even had bears 1000 years ago!
I'll see what I can find on them.

Edit: Beaten by seconds!

[thunder]

A useful book, with lots of references on Bears and other species, would be The History of British Mammals by Derel Yalden, published by T and AD Poyser.

I'm not sure whether or not it was a sub-species.

henrya

[Netuser60]

Harting, J.E. (1880) "British animals extinct within historic times" suggests that there were almost certainly no wild Brown Bears in Britain after the 10th century.

It's always more difficult to confirm the 'absence' or extinction of a species than it's presence, and even more so when European bears were brought over from Europe for several centuries.

[connerlake]

Ive tried to find this out alot myself and i dont think anyone's 100% certain

[ANNO]

baiting actually used Bear herds kept specifically for the task, most existing Bear Pits are remnants of this, including one in Whitehall built for Henry VIII.....

[Jim Ford]

Tread on the cracks of the pavement, and you'll find they're not extinct in Britain!

Jim

[connerlake]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

Tread on the cracks of the pavement, and you'll find they're not extinct in Britain!

Jim

im sorry i dont understand what this means?

[mbaldw]

It's an AA Milne reference (his poem Lines and Squares) - tread on the cracks in the pavement and you'll get eaten by bears!

Cheers,
Marc.