There was a period in Ireland's history when the countryside was heavily forested and large mammals like the great elk, the wolf and possibly even a species of European bear roamed its hinterland.  Today Ireland's largest wild mammal is the red deer, and even it is only to be found in isolated pockets.

Other mammals found here range from the fox and the badger at one end of the scale to the mice and shrews at the other.  Because of our location at the most westerly edge of the continent of Europe some mammals and reptiles never made it this far.  The weasel is absent in Ireland as are snakes and that dreaded disease, rabies, is also absent.

These pages are about just some of our Irish mammals.  They are not so very different to those found elsewhere in the British Isles and our Irish countryside is the much richer with their presence.