'Some people believe that the mountains of Ireland, unlike the mountains of Scotland, are missing something. You're not going to see a golden eagle every time you go up the Scottish mountains but you know that the eagle is there. It definitely completes the landscape when you do see an eagle. That's what a wild landscape is for," believes Lorcan O'Toole, manager of the Duchas project to re-introduce the golden eagle to Ireland. The first chicks are due to arrive in Donegal next week.
Having been in Ireland for millennia, the native bird was part of the natural landscape. Its extinction was largely due to the Victorian era when, according to O'Toole, anything "with a hooked bill was considered vermin". While persecution may have been partly due to the Victorians' attitudes, the bird's downfall in Ireland was the combined behaviour of "over-zealous taxidermists and egg collectors, as well as a change in habitat" - the huge surge in the human population from the 1780s up to the Famine which pushed some communities up mountainsides and into the eagle's territories.
Eagles are (Canada, North America, Europe, Scando-Russia and Japan), but this is one of the first golden eagle re-introductions because Ireland is one of the few territories in the world to have lost its population. Their decline was first noted in the 1850s. There was a dramatic drop in numbers and, in 1912, they became extinct in Co Mayo.
The Duchas experiment in Glenveagh, Co Donegal, is inspired by the increased number of pairs in Scotland also resulting from re-introduction.
While more than capable of building their own nests, golden eagles will often take over old nests. Some nests are built on each year. From old egg collectors' records in Scotland, it has been discovered that some nest sites have been used for approximately 100 years, with some of these benefiting from a century of home improvements - O'Toole has been to one that was about eight feet tall. While that particular nest may have taken its inspiration from the New York skyline, most range between two and three feet tall - still quite a fortress.
The nest site tends to be located in the middle-altitude area of their hunting grounds. This is an energy-saving device that allows them to take half of their prey up and the other half down to the nest. During mating the aerial display of the male is impressive - "an undulating sky dance" - where the male flies up to a great height, simply folds his wings and, as Tennyson puts it, "like a thunderbolt he falls", dropping like a stone. This he does repeatedly. O'Toole describes it as "an exaggerated squiggle along the sky". The female, meanwhile, just watches. This display also advertises to neighbouring pairs that this territory is occupied.
With a licence to take 15 chicks a year for five years from Scotland, Duchas expects "to lose quite a few in the first year - that happens in the wild". The chicks will be closely monitored after release. It'll also take some time to establish the survival ratio of males to females. A small blood sample will be taken to facilitate DNA testing. The birds will be wing-tagged, which will help to chart their progress. They will also be radio-tracked, to see which areas they settle in.
If a bird moves to a new mountain, for example, Duchas will, by its radio-signal emissions, be able to identify this new location. This will also allow Duchas to track the birds' behaviour as well as affording it time to alert local landowners to the existence of their new neighbours.
While golden eagles tend to shy away from humans, there has been some public apprehensions about the birds. Given their predilection for medium-sized mammals and some birds, the IFA also expressed its concerns. Duchas advised the IFA to consult with the Scottish Farming Union, which it did and it is now happy to support the project. In Ireland the birds' main diet will be hare and rabbit. If they're on the coast they'll feed on seabirds.
During the winter they'll also survive on carrion - dead animals - and even "grealloch" or the guts left behind from a deer-stalking expedition. Being a predator they're quite pragmatic and will even dine on roadkill. They'll also eat birds such as crows and the occasional (sitting) duck. There are other unusual things on their menu: "mice and grass snakes, if they can find them, and in Donegal they might take the odd mink as well".
Co Donegal already has "looked at Donegal they felt that, from their experience of Scotland, the landscape here was ideal".
Glenveagh National Park, which is owned by Duchas, was a hunting lodge-estate built in 1870 for John George Adare, landlord of the Glenveagh estate and the Derryveagh mountains. He ran it in a very similar fashion to Scottish sporting estates. Although no eagles are recorded as being hunted on the estate, the gates at the entrance of the house display a stone golden eagle statue on each pillar.
The instinct of most birds of prey is, according to O'Toole, "to breed near their natal site. The chicks that are reared here will see Glenveagh as their home, so their instinct will tell them to nest near Glenveagh or on the periphery of Glenveagh".
He would be "very surprised if some birds didn't return to those exact same nest sites in the Derryveagh Mountains, the Bluestack Mountains, and possibly even Horn Head", which are know to have already been inhabited by by golden eagles in the 19th century. With the Donegal mountains once more north-west will be complete.
Up to 75 golden eagles will be released in Glenveagh National Park over a five-year period starting with next week's arrivals.
Sightings of to: Lorcan O'Toole, Carrowtrasna, Church Hill, Letterkenny, Co Donegal. Or e-mail info@goldeneagle.ie or visit the