The
Ultimate Akademie Mobile Unit:
In
Search of The Great Irish Elk
April
- August 1997
Elk as a Tree
Final
Report
Introduction
We first found reference to the Great Irish Elk in
"The Maine Woods" by Henry David Thoreau. In a mystical description of
the the American moose, he compares it to the Great Irish Elk and quotes
authority in stating that the Elk is greater in magnitude than any living
creature.
Brief
Information
Megaloceros
giganteus (Blumenbach)
It should first be noted that the Great Irish Elk was
neither Irish nor elk. It was a Giant Deer, the largest deer species ever, with
weights estimated at up to 900 kilos. They stood up to 7 ft high at the shoulder
(2.1 meters) and had antlers spanning up to 12 ft (3.65 meters). It is called
"Irish" because of the many well-preserved fossils that have been
found in the lake bottoms, peat bogs and caves of Ireland since the 16th century.
There have been Giant Deer fossils found in various parts of continental Europe
and Western and Central Asia, however, up to now the highest concentration of
recoveries has been in Ireland.
The Giant Deer lived during the Pleistocene Epoch of
the Ice Age (2,000,000 - 10,000 years ago). They fed on grasses and shrubs which
grew on landscape recently abandoned by the ice. They are thought to have
originated in Asia (Siberia) and migrated westward following the retreating ice
sheets during the warmer phases of the Ice Age. The Giant Deer reached Ireland
via landbridges which disappeared under the rising water caused by the melting
of the ice caps and floes. They were stranded on the island and apparently
flourished there in the grassy lowlands and lakesides.
Their extinction in Ireland is estimated at
approximately 10,500 years ago (based on the dating of the majority of fossil
remains found). The species may have survived in continental Europe into
historic times but in Ireland they are believed to have vanished well before the
arrival of man.
Our proposal
The Giant Irish Deer has been the center of
considerable scientific debate over the last couple of centuries. It has been
instrumental in the establishment of current theories on natural selection and
played a key role in the acceptance of the concept of extinction. Scientists
against this concept originally felt the Giant Deer to live on in the form of
the North American moose or the European reindeer. However, in the early
eighteen-hundreds it was finally agreed that among other fossil vertebrates the
Giant Deer does not belong to any living species of mammal.
Herein lies the approach for our study of the Giant
Irish Deer. When extinction drives a creature beyond memory and it can only be
recreated, not found, it is then work for the poet or sculptor.
In the case of the Giant Deer, let us assume it to be
alive and seek it out and within that process recreate the species. Let us go to
Ireland to locate and establish visual contact with the living Giant Irish Deer.
Field Research
On our way to Dublin, to begin the quest for the living
Giant Irish Deer, we made a stopover in London. There we were unexpectedly
confronted with lifesize replicas of the Giant Deer in Crystal Palace Park.
These statues were erected around 1850, only about 40 years after the scientific
community had agreed that the Giant Deer is extinct. We felt that we were
getting close. In Crystal Palace we established our first Giant Deer Watchpost.
In Dublin we began a door-to-door survey where we
interviewed a random selection of people to find out if they had ever seen a
living Giant Irish Deer. We also visited the Natural History Museum and the
National Museum of Ireland to examine their splendid Giant Deer skeletons. While
in Dublin we established two more Giant Deer Watchposts. However, we were unable
to sight the Giant Deer and the city dwellers we interviewed were unable to
report having seen the Giant Deer. From Dublin we headed out across the midlands
to Galway via Hazelhatch, Kildare, Tullamore and Athlone. We were unable to
sight the Giant Deer, only cattle, horses and sheep. The farmers and villagers
we interviewed along the way could not report having seen the Giant Deer.
After a short time, we had set up an Ultimate Outpost,
a base camp, on the west coast at the Galway City Hostel in Galway City. (It was
a temporary site to store supplies, range out from and rest between excursions.
The Outpost also provided information about the current project and about the
Ultimate Akademie.) From there we hiked out through the Connemara, a mostly
mountainous region of rock and bog with fjords, lakes and unfortunate patches of
monoculture forest. We described a loop from Oughterard to Leenan and back via
Letterfrack and Clifden. In Clifden and Letterfrack we were able to establish
Watchposts for our Giant Deer Watch, just as we had previously established in
London, Dublin and Galway. (The Watchposts are on-line sites where people are
informed and equipped to report on the living Giant Irish Deer.) On the treks
through the Connemara we were unable to sight the Giant Irish Deer, only sheep.
The villagers we interviewed had little-to-no knowledge of the Giant Deer and
could not report having seen one.
On our next trip out from the Galway base the loop
extended as far south as Cork City and Skibbereen. Along this route we
established Watchposts in Ennis, Skibbereen, Killarney and somewhere between
Cork and Newfoundland. We began in the Burren, rolling low hills and green
valleys with a rocky coast and extensive underground caverns. Journeying first
along the Clare coast past the Cliffs of Moher, we then moved inland to Ennis.
On this leg of the trip we were unable to sight the Giant deer but found only
sheep and cattle. The villagers interviewed could not report having seen Giant
Deer. From Ennis we continued south, through farmlands via Limerick and Mallow,
to Cork City (with a side trip across the mud flats to Cobh). Again unable to
sight the Giant Deer, we identified only sheep, cattle and horses. The city
dwellers and villagers interviewed could not report having seen Giant Deer.
Circumstances did not permit us to establish a Watchpost in Cork City itself but
a visiting oceanographic technician agreed to conduct a Giant Deer Watch on an
expedition ranging from Cork to Newfoundland, examining the water to the ocean
floor at thirty kilometer intervals along the route. From Cork City we headed
for Skibbereen, through lush forested hills and vales via Bandon and Clonakilty.
The route from Skibbereen to Bantry and Glengarriff took us along the
southwestern coast but from Glengarriff we travelled inland, up and over a
wilder mountainous stretch, to Kenmare and on through the Kerry mountains into
Killarney. On this leg of the journey we were also unable to sight the Giant
Deer and identified only sheep, cattle, horses and a fox. The villagers and
farmers interviewed could not report having seen Giant Deer, except one man who
identified it as the Great Irish Oak. Via Limerick we returned to Galway with no
sightings along the way.
The next journey was a brief excursion made from Galway
into the Burren to a farming area between Ballyvaughan and Lisdoonvarna. Here we
were also unable to sight Giant Deer and the farmers interviewed could not
report having seen Giant Deer.
The next loop we made from Galway extended northward as
far as the Giant's Causeway, via Sligo, Donegal Town, Derry, Belfast, Port
Stewart and back to Galway through Enniskillen. Watchposts were established in
Donegal Town, Derry, Belfast, Coleraine and Enniskillen. The first leg took us
into hilly lake country and farmlands, through Ballymote and Sligo and along the
northwest coast to Donegal Town. Near Sligo we were able to visit cairnes made
by stone-age man but we were unable to sight Giant Deer. We identified sheep,
cattle, horses and a weasel. The farmers and villagers interviewed could not
report having seen Giant Deer. From Donegal Town we continued on to the rocky
coastal cliffs of North Ireland via Derry, Belfast and Coleraine. The people
interviewed could not report having seen Giant Deer and we identified only sheep,
cattle and horses. The return trip took us through Enniskillen and Sligo and
back to Galway. Again we, and those interviewed, were unable to report having
seen the Giant Irish Deer.
Upon our return to Galway we broke down the Ultimate
Outpost at the Galway City Hostel (which in the meantime had become an Elk
Information Center) and travelled to Dublin. From Dublin we made our last
excursion down the eastern coast through the Wicklow Mountains to Wexford and
the ferry at Rosslare. On this trip we were also unable to sight the Giant Deer
and none of those interviewed could report having seen the Giant Deer.
In conclusion
After four months traversing the length and breadth of
Ireland we were unable to sight the Giant Irish Deer and nobody interviewed in
the widely-dispersed random survey could report having seen the Giant Deer. We
were able to set up Giant Deer Watchposts in London, Dublin, Galway,
Letterfrack, Clifden, Ennis, Skibbereen, Killarney, Donegal Town, Derry,
Belfast, Coleraine, Enniskillen and a mobile Watchpost in the mid-Atlantic.
Acknowledgements:
We are greatly indebted to the management and staff of
the Galway City Hostel for allowing us to establish our base there and for their
physical, financial and moral support during our time in Ireland.
We would also like to thank the staff of both the
Natural History Museum and the National Museum in Dublin for their help,
especially Ivor Harkin (National Museum of Ireland) for his invaluable
assistance and encouragement.
Last but not least, we would like to thank all of those
individuals whose support made the realization of this project possible.
Info Sources & Recommended Reading:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/irishelk.html
National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
"The Giant Irish Deer"
"The Giant Deer
(or Irish Elk)"
"The Maine Woods" by Henry David Thoreau,
1864
"The Irish Landscape" by Frank Mitchell
"Reading The Irish Landscape" by Mitchell
& Ryan