OPINION: Undoing the work of others

When we first heard the news on Saturday that yet another of Ireland’s precious white-tailed sea eagles had been shot and killed, this time in Co Roscommon, we were greatly disappointed.
Disappointed, yes. Surprised? No.
It was 17 years ago, in 2007, that our National Parks and Wildlife Service first engaged with the Golden Eagle Trust and partners in Norway in an attempt to restore these dramatic apex predators to the Irish landscape, with the Norwegian authorities generously contributing 100 eagle chicks to the Irish cause through the following five years.
White-tailed eagles, together with their golden eagle cousins, had become extinct in this country over a century ago, with the last recorded sighting coming from Co Kerry (although numerous other locations also claim to have hosted the last of these huge raptors. Likewise, the demise of the wolf as a native species is shrouded in mystery, with the last Irish wolf being killed in Mayo, Tipperary and numerous other locations.)
While considered a threat to the livelihood of small farmers dependent on their annual crop of lambs, there is no doubt that such spectacular birds as our sea eagles would have made quite a prize for the trophy-hunting ‘sportsman’. Perhaps they still do.
While it is true that an eagle, especially one with two or three hungry nestlings, would take the occasional lamb, data collected by scientists suggests that the impact of these birds on the national sheep flock is minimal.
Perhaps the best information available comes from Scotland, where a 20-year study into the diet of white-tailed eagles reintroduced there suggests that an early reliance (in the 1970s) on lambs as prey items has dwindled, despite the birds consistently nesting close to or even within sheep farming territory.
According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) website, lamb remains made up just 6 percent of waste found in 58 eagle nests, and some of this would have been from animals died from natural causes or neglect and were taken as carrion.
That study, which involved the collection of 11,375 food items from the nests of Scottish eagles, showed the birds had a remarkably varied diet, within which some 121 different species of animal, bird and fish were represented.
There is no doubt that improved husbandry would minimise the impact of predation on young lambs. Still, it is hard to ignore the concerns of one Scottish farming family who claim to have lost hundreds of young lambs to predatory eagles. Their own experience is hardly reflected in this part of the world. But at what level is predation unsustainable? And who should pay?
One tale doing the rounds concerned a short-lived compensation scheme for farmers who had lost lambs due to the presence of eagles. While most of the hill sheep in that mountainous area produced single lambs, once this scheme was launched ‘there was never as many twins born on the hill’.
Such a story, while mildly amusing, does little to comfort those who do suffer losses at the claws of these large raptors. It does highlight the fact that such compensation schemes are open to abuses.
Close to home, Co Kerry is a popular tourist destination, with visitor numbers to Killarney National Park in 2023 just shy of 1.5 million.
The tourism industry is a major player in the economy of the entire west of Ireland, and the presence of iconic animal and bird species is a large part of the attraction. Red deer, Ireland’s largest mammal, and both golden and white-tailed eagles, among Ireland’s largest birds, are of considerable importance in this regard.
What would be the reaction if those dependent on incoming visitors were to muscle in on the rights of landowners and send their clients onto private land, even to the point where farm income was negatively impacted? It is hard to imagine such a scenario being tolerated.
But would such action be dissimilar to landowners and farmers taking the law into their own hands and shooting dead or poisoning the wildlife that others are working so hard to preserve?
The simple facts of the matter are that predators need prey. Hares, red grouse and other important food items enjoyed by eagles are in short supply, due mainly to pressures from farming and forestry. No wonder they turn occasionally to lambs.
Surely, those who benefit the most from public funding should be prepared to make some kind of sacrifice in order that some kind of natural order and balance is preserved.
Irish farmers are set to receive a total of €10 billion by 2027, through Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy.
€10 billion would go a long way to restoring native wildlife. Even a little of it, forfeited by those intent on flying in the face of the majority and undoing the work of others, could be well spent.

Michael Kingdon, writes the ‘Country Sights and Sounds’ column for the Living section of the Mayo News. A naturalist and keen fisherman, he lives on the shores of Lough Carra.