Ireland's fallow deer: their historical, archaeological and biomolecular records

Abstract

The Anglo-Normans first introduced fallow deer (Dama dama) to Ireland in the thirteenth century, however no biomolecular research has previously been undertaken to examine the timing, circumstances and impact of the arrival of this species. This study combines historical, zooarchaeological, genetic and isotopic data from both medieval and post-medieval samples to address this lack of research. The paper identifies a peak in the presence of fallow deer in Ireland between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with a corresponding peak in documentary evidence for their presence in the thirteenth century. The deer are predominantly male, and from castle sites, supporting the historical evidence for their link with elite hunting. The English origin of the source populations shows correspondence between the documentary evidence, suggesting a western bias-and genetic evidence-with a similarity to southern and western England. Furthermore a stable isotope study identifies two possible first-generation imports, one dating from the medieval period and one from the post-medieval period.As is the case with many islands, Ireland's modern mammalian fauna contains a high proportion of introduced animals, Lever ( 2009) listing fourteen naturalised species. These have gradually replaced Ireland's 'native' species, several of which, including grey wolf (Canis lupus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos), have been brought to extinction (Foster and Chesney 1998, 242). Aside from extinctions, Ireland's list of presumed native species is also diminishing as a result of biomolecular research; recent studies have revealed that some animals that

Bayesian species distribution models integrate presence‐only and presence–absence data to predict deer distribution and relative abundance

“…For the three models, the spatial field contributed greatly to the overall predicted distribution, with the covariates having in general small effects for all species. In other words, the fact that the spatial field (and not the environmental covariates) captured most of the spatial structure in the data suggests that environmental variables are not the main drivers of the distributions reflecting the ‘founder effect' in their distribution, since the three species have been introduced (or re‐introduced in the case of the red deer; Powerscourt 1884, Carden et al 2012, Beglane et al 2018).…”

“…Three species of deer are well distributed throughout Ireland: red deer, sika deer and fallow deer. Red deer are native to Ireland (but see Carden et al 2012), whereas fallow deer were introduced by the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century (Beglane et al 2018) and sika deer were initially introduced for ornamental purposes in the 1860s to the Powercourt Estate, Co. Wicklow, which is situated close to the capital city of Dublin (Powerscourt 1884).…”

“…Density from pellets Red deer 0.60 0.45 Sika deer 0.45 0.64 Fallow deer 0.46 0.59 three species have been introduced (or re-introduced in the case of the red deer; Powerscourt 1884, Carden et al 2012, Beglane et al 2018.…”

Bayesian species distribution models integrate presence-only and presence-absence data to predict deer distribution and relative abundance

“…There are three species of deer well distributed through Ireland, red deer, sika deer, and fallow deer. Red deer are native to Ireland (but see Carden et al 2012), whereas fallow deer were introduced by the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century (Beglane et al 2018) and sika deer were initially introduced for ornamental purposes in 1860s in the Wicklow mountains not far from Dublin (Powerscourt 1884).…”

Bayesian areal disaggregation regression to predict wildlife distribution and relative density with low-resolution data

“…1 - east), and Donegal (Fig. 1 - northwest), for red deer (McDevitt et al 2009; Carden et al 2011), Kerry and Wicklow (for sika deer (McDevitt et al 2009), and historical sites of Anglo-Norman castles and deer parks located in Ireland’s east and midland counties for fallow deer (Beglane et al 2018). It is also possible that there have been many local introductions in the 20th and 21st century that have not been documented in the literature but may have contributed to range expansion or population growth for deer in Ireland.…”