A Note on the Extinction of Brown Bears in Ireland
The last known brown bear in Ireland lived about 2,500 years ago. After that, the bears vanished.
When they died, their fur must have curled itself into spirals. It must have caught up on the winds coming off the Atlantic. It must have blown across the Ring of Kerry, down to the Beara Peninsula, and then rolled itself—dandelion-like—across the sea to the wise steps of The Skelligs.
A scientist marked the bears’ paths, places, and migration roads. They, too, perhaps encountered a famine.
For some bears, deforestation might have meant a journey to the mountains, or into the forests, in search of food and habitation. They may have danced with faeries or perished in places where the salmon once ran.
Now, in Donegal, there are three brown bears that have travelled far, from Lithuania. Wildlife sanctuaries and rescue bears behind fences. Tickets paid and backs of hands stamped.
Extinction happens slowly, maybe while you take a breath and continue on your way. Before you know it, before you blink even, you have evolved or become extinct.
Follow the fossils, and you’ll find the places where the bears once walked.
Follow the places where their footprints are pressed down into the earth in ways that mark their passages forever.
Look for the artfully arranged clusters of ancient bones, piled up like little pyres of kindling: ready for the burning.
The ghosts of the old brown bears weep. They know they cannot return.