Bad news from Ireland! (1 Viewer)

White Tailed Sea Eagles have recently been found poisoned in Donegal & Mayo, while a Scottish Golden Eagle, from Mull, was found poisoned in Donegal!

Surely it's high time Ireland had a dedicated Wildlife crime Force, to catch the scum involved in these crimes?

Donegal Eagle killed by Poison!

WHITE TAILED EAGLE FOUND POISONED IN HILLS OF DONEGAL

Minister condemns Killing

Unfortunately, the Sea Eagles which were trying to nest in Co. Clare, have failed in their first attempt, which makes you wonder, is Ireland the best place for Eagles to breed, given the levels of persecution there! :C

Join me in my total boycott of all Irish agricultural products... |=@|

Perhaps it is time to stop exporting Scotland's rare raptors to Ireland.

Ptarmi said:

White Tailed Sea Eagles have recently been found poisoned in Donegal & Mayo, while a Scottish Golden Eagle, from Mull, was found poisoned in Donegal!

Surely it's high time Ireland had a dedicated Wildlife crime Force, to catch the scum involved in these crimes?

Donegal Eagle killed by Poison!

WHITE TAILED EAGLE FOUND POISONED IN HILLS OF DONEGAL

Minister condemns Killing

Unfortunately, the Sea Eagles which were trying to nest in Co. Clare, have failed in their first attempt, which makes you wonder, is Ireland the best place for Eagles to breed, given the levels of persecution there! :C

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This is sickening news!
We had the privilege of seeing Golden eagles on Mull and at Ardnamurchan on the Scottish mainland.
And the Sea eagles are so beautiful. Again, on Mull, we had the pleasure of seeing Frisa and Skye from the RSPB visitor centre.

Firecrest5 said:

Perhaps it is time to stop exporting Scotland's rare raptors to Ireland.

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The reason these birds are found so readily is because they are satelitte tagged - similiar studies in Scotland show a similiar mortality rate unfortunatly:-C

Ptarmi said:

White Tailed Sea Eagles have recently been found poisoned in Donegal & Mayo, while a Scottish Golden Eagle, from Mull, was found poisoned in Donegal!

Surely it's high time Ireland had a dedicated Wildlife crime Force, to catch the scum involved in these crimes?

Donegal Eagle killed by Poison!

WHITE TAILED EAGLE FOUND POISONED IN HILLS OF DONEGAL

Minister condemns Killing

Unfortunately, the Sea Eagles which were trying to nest in Co. Clare, have failed in their first attempt, which makes you wonder, is Ireland the best place for Eagles to breed, given the levels of persecution there! :C

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Your first link refers to an incident that is now 3 years old - all in all though the situation is rather alarming. Many parts of Ireland have a healthy and booming raptor population with buzzards, Red Kites etc. doing well in the East of the country. Unfortunatly though the main black spots happen to over lap with certain counties on the Western seaboard where the 2 eagle projects are located.

The ratio of eagles killed to released does seem rathr high therefore until this is tightened up on there should be no more exports to Ireland.

If levels of poisonong are as high in Scotland then surely the Scottish population cannot afford all these exports?

Irish Kite said:

The reason these birds are found so readily is because they are satelitte tagged - similiar studies in Scotland show a similiar mortality rate unfortunatly:-C

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Firecrest5 said:

The ratio of eagles killed to released does seem rathr high therefore until this is tightened up on there should be no more exports to Ireland.

If levels of poisonong are as high in Scotland then surely the Scottish population cannot afford all these exports?

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The birds taken from Scotland are ones that are hand reared as chicks from nests with more than one chick - this is because these second chicks rarely if ever make it out of the nest in the wild as they typically are killed by the older chick and/or die of starvation.

The bigger picture is that both countries have major problems in this area that don't look like getting solved any time soon

Irish Kite said:

The birds taken from Scotland are ones that are hand reared as chicks from nests with more than one chick - this is because these second chicks rarely if ever make it out of the nest in the wild as they typically are killed by the older chick and/or die of starvation.

The bigger picture is that both countries have major problems in this area that don't look like getting solved any time soon

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Agreed. On all points. One poisoned eagle is one too many.
See this link for the selection criteria for chicks relocated from Scottish nests to Ireland. It's quite a big file but is also worth reading for the backround info on the project.
http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/scottish/IrishGoldenEagleProject.pdf


Here is a blog entry from the Golden Eagle reintroduction project website which nicely sums up the frustration felt by the project organisers.
It also discusses the level of support among the farming community for the project in Donegal and elsewhere in Ireland. While there are clearly individuals who set out to poison what they see as threats to their livelihood, the support or at least tolerance of most Irish farmers for the project gives hope for the future.

http://www.goldeneagle.ie/news_viewnews.php?news_id=5&x=1&z=231&start=0

The recent failed nesting attempt of White-tailed eagles in Co. Clare also attracted many people who otherwise would have very little interest in wildlife and will also potentially generate support for both eagle projects. My mother and sister and several of her friends went and I can assure you that their interest in wildlife is slight.

It should also be stressed that the failure of this nest was, so far as is known at the moment, due to natural causes. There has been no suggestion of interference with the birds. They were apparently not fully mature and with luck will try again next year. There are also birds present in other parts of Ireland, away from the sheep rearing areas in the west, which could breed in the near future.

I'm not trying to downplay any poisoning incident at all and I personally know wildlife rangers who investigate such incidents very thoroughly indeed. It is usually difficult to secure a conviction due to lack of firm evidence as can be seen all over Britain as well as in Ireland. We can only hope that such incidents will disappear through education programmes as legislation, while absolutely necessary, clearly hasn't eradicated the problem.

I, for one, remain hopeful.

I feel embarassed about the level of poisoning still going on in this country. It is shameful in the extreme. The narrow-mindedness and pure ignorance of some farmers here is unbelievable. There is nothing I would like more than seeing these spectaclar birds re-introduced successfully here, but if this kind of mindless killing continues Id much rather these birds be left alone to live in Scotland,Wales and Norway. Our government needs to act faster on this before all of these birds meet a similar fate.

In the case of Donegal their is evidence that the loss of at least half a dozen eagles may the work of only 1 or 2 individuals - the widespread disgust felt locally(including the vast majority of sheep farmers) about the loss of these birds will hopefully draw in the net tighter on these vermin.

In the light of yet another precious Irish Eagle being poisoned, I just wonder how many irresponsible Farmers in Ireland are still laying illegal Poison baits on their land?

It's a sad fact that "Nine Golden Eagles, White-tailed Eagles and Red Kites have been poisoned in Ireland over the past two and a half years."

"BirdWatch Ireland is calling on the Irish Government to ... properly legislate against the indiscriminate and improperly controlled use of poisons in agriculture."

Gamekeepers are usually under suspicion straight away & I have no doubt, a number of Birds of Prey are poisoned by rogue keepers every year. However, I personally reckon the major culprits of these wildlife crimes are more likely to be completely idiotic & totally reckless Farmers &/or Shepherds, as demonstrated by this case, down around the Sligo/Leitrim border:
..

"the bird had died as a result of feeding on a lamb carcass which was left exposed on the side of the mountain"

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I myself am surrounded by Sheep Farmers & I have witnessed sudden inexplicable plummets in the local Buzzard population & I can't help wondering if perhaps these losses were caused by local sheep farmers laying poison baits against Foxes! If so, they clearly just don't care if other non-target species are killed by these baits, in the process.
One day it may be someone's pet dog, or worse still, a child!

Surely the law needs to be tightened up & more strongly enforced?

"Unfortunately the small number of landowners who continue to misuse poisoned meat baits are responsible for bringing farming into disrepute, damaging wildlife and as a result ultimately threatening tourism and farm incomes. BirdWatch Ireland is calling for a complete ban on the use of poisoned meat baits in Ireland.”

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I wonder how the law stands in Northern Ireland?

If not in place already, surely it is time for a total ban on the laying of Poison Baits & for this to be strongly enforced with suitable severe penalties?

I would certainly hope that if anyone sees anything suspicious on their travels, they would report their findings immediately to the proper authorities, so that they may be investigated thoroughly!
I know all birders would react like this immediately, but I'm not so sure joe public would want to get involved.

Ptarmi - Some of that info in your post appears to be out of date, notably that BWI facebook link about poison baits from early 2010. All poison meat baits have been made illegal in the ROI since October 2010 under new legislation brought in by the then Minister for Environment. The reason this problem is such an intractible one to solve is that it only takes one rogue individual to do an immense amount of damage. You could have an area with many sheep farmers, 99% who are law abiding in regards to vermin control. It only takes one bad apple to lace a carcass and an entire regions eagle population is wiped out. Similiar things happen in other countries(Markus Juis posted an example from Greece only a few months ago in this forum).

Your right to have concerns about the situation in NI too. There is strong evidence from what I heard on the grape-vine that at least half a dozen eagles have been poisoned in NI with Antrim accounting for the majority of cases going on tracking/siting info. I think the authorties there now appreciate the level of risk since the start of the eagle projects in the republic and now take the matter seriously, but as I said its probably one of the toughest challenges in conservation to keep species like this safe from this ongoing menace