What our wildlife used to look like

Travel back a few hundred years to before the industrial revolution, and the wildlife of Britain and Ireland would have looked very different indeed to what we see today.

From wolves, beavers and lynx, to orcas’ and great auks’ – what was the state of wildlife in Britain and Ireland before modern records began?  The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife looks at the era before climate change, before the intensification of agriculture, before even the Industrial Revolution.

In the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, beavers still swim in the River Ness. Isolated populations of wolves and lynxes linger in the uplands. Sea eagles are widespread around the coasts. Wildcats and pine martens remain common in the Lake District.  There are no grey squirrels, rabbits are still mainly a coastal species (except in lowland England) and roe deer were found wild only in the north of Scotland and Snowdonia.

This remarkable publication  will be of great value to anyone with an interest in the natural heritage of Britain and Ireland.

For more information visit: Wildlife wonders of Britan and Ireland before the Industrial Revolution.