Urgent action is needed to save the golden eagle reintroduction project from failure.
The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is urging Ministers Simon Coveney and Heather Humphries to save the golden eagle reintroduction project from failure.
Donegal Golden Eagles in jeopardy
Ecologists have long suspected that the project to reintroduce the golden eagle in Donegal is failing, and the Golden Eagle Trust confirmed their suspicions last week.
The group said that there is not enough food in the Donegal landscape to sustain the birds.
No chicks were fledged in 2015 and only one in 2014, and as the parent birds age time is running out to build a viable population.
The Golden Eagle Trust said that “the situation is critical… if there was a better food supply within the territories of the four pairs, it is likely some chicks would have fledged in 2015.”
Eating habits of the golden eagle in Donegal indicate low numbers of their preferred prey – the eagles have been observed catching crows and badger cubs, instead of the hares or red grouse they are seen eating in Scotland.
The project, which commenced in 2001, is now at risk of failure.
The IWT said that the threat faced by golden eagles is indicative of the ongoing decline in the health of upland habitats in Ireland, mainly due to uncontrolled burning, turf extraction and over-grazing by sheep.
“It would be tragic were golden eagles to go extinct again, after all the hard work put in by the Golden Eagle Trust and others,” said IWT Campaigns Officer Pádraic Fogarty.
Their loss would represent a huge blow to Donegal, not least from the tourism potential that these birds present. Sadly the lack of any management plan for Glenveagh National Park or surrounding ‘special protection areas’, or any conservation measures to protect the eagles is now placing the future of golden eagles in Ireland at threat.”
The IWT is calling on Ministers Coveney and Humphries to urgently introduce a Burren-style farming scheme that can improve conditions in the uplands, not only for golden eagles but for the many species that also rely on it.
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(Source – Donegal Now – 24/11/2015)