HYENAS & WOOLLY MAMMOTHS FOUND IN DONERAILE
NEW METHODS DATE BONES FOUND IN CASTLEPOOK BACK TO 35,000 YEARS AGO
HYENAS, woolly mammoths and brown bears roamed the landscape of north Cork 35,000 years ago, new analysis of bones and other animal remains found in a cave system near Doneraile has ascertained.
Keeper of the Natural History Museum in Dublin, Nigel Monaghan, said that the bones had been found in caves in Castlepook near Doneraile which proved to be a treasure trove of ancient animal remains. The excavations at Castlepook took place between 1904-1918 and were published in 1918.
Speaking to The Corkman in advance of a lunchtime talk today (Thursday) in the Natural History Museum in Dublin, Keeper Monaghan said Ireland 35,000 years ago was a very habitable landscape despite being in the grip of an ice age.
He said ongoing excavations of the caves near Doneraile had continued over 10 years at the time and since led to discoveries which are now being seen in a new light.
“Technology now allows us to re-examine museum collections and get more information,” he said. “We now know that during some of the milder climate phases of the ‘Ice Age’, parts of Ireland were relatively free of ice and our landscape was like Scandinavia today.
“A mammoth bone from Castlepook cave discovered in 1972 in a previously unexplored section of the cave has two dimple marks (attached image NGF21799) that match the tooth spacing for hyena, suggesting these were left when the hyena was tearing meat from the mammoth bone.”
“The spotted hyena (Scientific name is Crocuta crocuta) is known from only one site in Ireland, at Castlepook Cave, County Cork, where reliable dates range from 45,600 years ago to 33,240 years ago,” he said.
“Their bones, teeth, skulls and even droppings were found during excavations that also discovered remains of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus), stoat (Mustela erminea), wolf (Canis lupus), collared lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus), Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) and mountain hare (Lepus timidus).”
Of these, only the stoat and mountain hare are found in Ireland today. Most of these species died out through natural climate change about 10,500 years ago, the wolf and bear were hunted to extinction much later (wolf 1700s, bear 3,000 years ago). People arrived in Ireland 10,000 years ago.
Lately a campaign has begun about reintroducing the wolf to Ireland.