University College Dublin study reidentifies prehistoric ‘Kerry Cow’ as bear and boar

A biomolecular analysis has revealed that bone fragments long identified as the oldest evidence of domestic livestock in Ireland actually belonged to a wild bear and a wild boar. The findings, led by University College Dublin (UCD), overturn a theory held for over 30 years regarding the arrival of agriculture on the island.

The remains, known as the ‘Kerry Cow’, were recovered from Ferriter's Cove on the Dingle Peninsula during excavations in the 1980s and 1990s. Previously, these bones were thought to suggest that domestic animals arrived in Ireland through contact between hunter-gatherers and Neolithic communities before agriculture was fully established.

Using modern Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify species through proteins in bone collagen, researchers determined the remains were from wild animals rather than domestic cattle. This correction removes a primary piece of evidence used to argue for an exceptionally early presence of domestic animals in Ireland and Great Britain, forcing archaeologists to re-evaluate the chronology of how farming and livestock were introduced to the region.