February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Two of six chicks that were released into Donegal’s Glenveagh National Park in 2001 have nested and produced an egg, according to Lorcan O’Toole, manager of the Golden Eagle Reintroduction Project.
Although the egg was infertile, O’Toole said it was a positive sign.
“A lot of birds fail in their first breeding attempt,” he said.
A total of 37 chicks have been imported from Scotland and released in Ireland since the program began. Each bird was tagged with a radio-tracking device to follow their progress. Signals show that some birds have nested in the south of Ireland, some have returned to the west coast of Scotland, and others have died.
The first set of chicks that were released are just now entering maturity. O’Toole is confidant that this will soon lead to the beginnings of a new golden eagle population in Irish skies.
“We’re hopeful that in the next few years, we’ll see the first fully-grown spread eagle take to the sky,” he said. “In 100 years, we might have 50 pairs of eagles in Ireland.”
Golden eagles are thought once to have existed in the thousands in Ireland, but by 1912, they had been hunted to extinction.
“Ireland has the dubious honor of being the only country to have lost its entire population of Golden eagles,” said O’Toole.
At present, Ireland has the lowest population of birds of prey in Europe.
“Because we’re an island, its more difficult for extinct colonies to re-colonize. This is part of an initiative to restore bio-diversity in Ireland.”
Similar reintroduction projects are planned for the white tailed eagle, the Red Kite and the Osprey species.