Golden eagle returns to Ireland
The golden eagle has landed in Ireland for the first time in nearly a century.
Six chicks of the bird-of-prey arrived today in Co Donegal from the Scottish Highlands at the start of a programme to re-introduce a species that became extinct in 1912.
They were flown into Donegal’s Carrickfinn airport and are to be released on mountainside in the county’s Glenveigh National Park in six weeks’ time after being tagged and fitted with radio transmitters to track their progress - and once they are ready to fly.
The birds, now between five and eight weeks old, will be kept in special cages before being allowed to go.
They are the first of 75 eaglets due to be freed in Ireland over the next five years in a bid to repeat breeding projects that have proved a success in Scotland in recent years.
The scene of their eventual flights to freedom was approved earlier this year by eagle experts from Scotland, and the chicks secured special permits to leave from Scottish National Heritage.
The attempt to bring eagles back to Ireland - after hunting, persecution and habitat change forced them into extinction, together with ospreys, red kites, goshawks and marsh harriers - has been planned for a decade, and is being aided by a £50,000 grant from Ireland’s National Millennium Committee.
Irish millennium minister Seamus Brennan said tonight: ‘‘This is an historic occasion as we bridge a void of almost a century.
‘‘What could be more fitting as we begin a new century and new millennium than to bring back to the people of Ireland a bird of great grace and beauty that will be a constant source of attraction, mystery and intrigue.
‘‘This project will undo the mistakes of the past, when this great symbol of strength and freedom was hunted to extinction.’’
The eagle’s return partly fulfils Ireland’s obligations under the terms of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Golden eagles take up to five years to breed and live as long as 30 years, feeding on hares, rabbits, fox cubs, crows and other birds.
Lorcan O’Toole, one of the chief Irish backers of the scheme, said: ‘‘We are confident that down the road the eagles will breed successfully.’’
