What is List of mammals of Great Britain?
{{complex|date=March 2024}} This is a '''list of mammals of Great Britain'''. The [[Great Britain]] [[mammal]] [[fauna]] is impoverished compared with that of continental [[Europe]]. This is because there was only a short time between the last [[ice age]] and the flooding of the [[land bridge]] between Britain and the rest of Europe. The list only has land [[species]] which crossed before the creation of the [[English Channel]], and those later brought in by humans. [[Image:Lepus timidus 01-cropped.jpg|right|thumb|Mountain hare in Scotland]] [[wiktionary:native|Native]] (indigenous) species have three possible definitions: * a species which colonised the islands during the [[Glacier|glacial]] retreat at the end of the last ice age (c.9500 years ago); * a species that was present when the English Channel was created (c.8000 years ago); * or, a species that was present in [[prehistory]]. This list includes mammals from the small islands around Great Britain and the [[Channel Islands]]. There are no [[Endemism|endemic]] mammal species in Great Britain, although four distinct [[subspecies]] of [[rodent]]s have arisen on small islands. == Rodentia == [[Rodent]]s make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40 percent of mammalian species. They have two [[incisor]]s in the upper and lower jaw which grow continuously and must be kept short by gnawing. Most rodents are small, though the [[coypu]] (once [[Introduced species|introduced]] to Great Britain, but subsequently eradicated) can weigh up to 9&nbsp;kg (15.5&nbsp;lb). [[Image:Kurre5.jpg|right|thumb|Red squirrel]] '''Family: [[Castoridae]] (beavers)''' *[[Eurasian beaver]] ''Castor fiber'' – Reintroduced '''Family: [[Cricetidae]] (voles)''' *[[Bank vole]] ''Myodes glareolus'' **[[Skomer vole]] ''M. g. skomerensis'' *[[Field vole]] ''Microtus agrestis'' *[[Common vole]] ''M. arvalis'' **[[Orkney vole]] or Cuttick ''M. a. orcadensis'' *[[European water vole|Water vole]] ''Arvicola terrestris'' '''Family: [[Muridae]] (rats, mice and relatives)''' *[