Two species of woodlice evolved in Protestant and Catholic graveyards in Ireland due to different building materials, according to a wildlife expert.
On The Anton Savage Show, wildlife expert Dr Éanna Ní Lamhna said that mortar found in Protestant graveyards used to be made from ox blood, which attracted a particular species of woodlouse.
This and more of the natural Irish landscape is explored in Dr Ní Lamhna's latest publication, The Great Irish Biodiversity Book.
She said people shouldn’t think biodiversity ‘only exists in the rainforest’, and that nature can give us insights into Irish history and legends.
Ancient myths
Dr Ní Lamhna gave the example of the myth of the ‘will-o'-the-wisp'.
What the ancient Irish had believed to be ‘some strange spirit’ was actually caused by natural bog gas.
“What you have in the bog is plants that grew and fell down but didn’t actually rot away,” she said.
“If you decompose things in the absence of oxygen, methane is given off.
“It’s pretty flammable, but who’s going around lighting it? But you have this other gas - phosphine - that occasionally sets off [the methane].
“You get this whoosh of blue, and people thought this was some strange spirit that was on the bog.”
Invasive species
Dr Ní Lamhna’s also explained how invasive mink were introduced to Ireland after the fur trade collapsed around the 1950’s.
"Once they got into the wild, there was no stopping them because they are an American species,” she said.
“They came over here as a farm thing – there was no wolverines, no pole cats – nothing to put manners on them.
"We have otters that live in the river and eat fish – ordinary, decent skins – but [the mink] eat the fish in the river.
“They get out of the river and they eat the eggs of all the coot – the water hens.
“If you have mink in the area, you have nothing else.
“If that isn't enough for them, then they march up to the farmhouse, and they eat all the hens in the hen house to boot – so there’s nothing good to be said about them.”
Dr Ní Lamhna thanked Barry Falls for illustrating The Great Irish Biodiversity Book. It is aimed at children but is still 'suitable for all'.
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