Irish Animals

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner, let's take a minute to appreciate the different animals that call Ireland home. Don't bother looking for any snakes in Ireland, you won't find any! There are only 26 land mammal species that are native to Ireland, this is because Ireland was isolated from Europe by the rising sea after the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. Some of Ireland's native species include:

Irish Hare

Connemara Pony

Irish Water Spaniel

Common Lizard

Galway Sheep

Irish Setter

Kerry Bog Pony

Photos from Vet Street

St. Patrick And The (Non-Existent) Snakes

It's one of the most popular Irish myths, the story of how St. Patrick drove all of the snakes out of Ireland and that's why to this day you don't see snakes in the Emerald Isle. However, scientific evidence has disproved this myth: Turns out, there were never any snakes in first place.

"At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records, told National Geographic News.

Sorry to disappoint, but this never happened.

In fact, the only reptile that is native to Ireland is the viviparous, or common, lizard. The viviparous lizard measures less than five inches in length, but that doesn't include its tail which is up to two times longer than its body.

This lizard species is found farther north than any other reptile species, as far as the Arctic Circle. The viviparous lizard also gives birth to live offspring, rather than laying eggs as is normal for most other lizard species.