Unless we tighten up and enforce laws governing the use of poisons then plans to reintroduce large birds of prey, such as the golden eagle, are in danger of failing, writes HARRY McGEE
SPRING OF 2009 was a quiet time in Glenveagh, the beautiful national park in Donegal. There were few tourists around and cold weather had brought heavy snowfalls to the valley and to the surrounding mountains of Errigal, Muckish and Slieve Snaght.
It was a relatively quiet time of year for the Golden Eagle Trust, which is based in Glenveagh. For a decade, this ambitious project has striven to re-introduce a majestic bird of prey, once native to Ireland, but extinct for the best part of a century.
But on the morning of February 18th, Lorcán O’Toole, the driving force behind the trust, was catching up on routine administrative work when he was alerted to activity from a satellite receiver. O’Toole was excited. The receiver was picking up a signal from a Northstar satellite tag attached to a young female golden eagle which O’Toole had released to the wild the previous year.
The tag was powered by a solar panel and had worked well from the time the bird was released in mid-July, until mid-September. Then the locations stopped coming in. It was clear that the tag had lost power and was not recharging. But now, five months later, almost miraculously, the signal had revived. And what’s more, it showed a location in Dunlewy only a few miles away.
O’Toole jumped into his jeep and drove there. Armed with a portable receiver, he began hiking through the snow. “I was feeling very positive. I kept on looking up the mountain at the crags and the overhangs to see if I could spot where the eagle might have nested,” he recalls. “I’d only just started walking when I found it right at my feet.” The bird was dead and had been for some time. The brightness of the surrounding snow had recharged the solar panels and revived the signal. Toxicology tests showed that the young eagle had died of poisoning, from paraquat, a deadly weedkiller, which is no longer legally on sale in Ireland.
EVERY YEAR, O’Toole has gone to Scotland to collect eagle chicks from Scottish National Heritage. The poisoning cast a shadow over their availability. But then, just as the ripples from that event had settled, another later incident occurred, almost a year to the day. Another young eagle, named Conall, had made it as far as the area around Truskmore mountain in Co Sligo. But then its battery-powered satellite tag began to show the absence of movement, a sure-fire sign of trouble.
When O’Toole tracked the bird down, it also had been poisoned, this time with a cocktail of alpha-chloralose, a poison used to control vermin, and Nitroxynil, a veterinary medical product. In each case, the carcass of an animal, probably livestock, had been laced with the poison – an illegal act. But under present legislation, Government sources concede it is almost impossible to bring a prosecution unless the poisoner is caught in the act.
“Since that day, I have been in a bit of a tailspin, deflated and frustrated at the poisoning of Conall,” O’Toole blogged this week, expressing his frustration at the lack of action and also his concern about the future availability of chicks from Scotland.
It’s not only the golden eagles. In Kerry, the problem has reached almost endemic proportions. Dr Allan Mee took charge of a programme to reintroduce sea eagles in Kerry. But a spate of poisonings in recent weeks has brought to 13 the number of birds lost since their release in Killarney National Park three years ago. Another reintroduction programme, of red kites in Wicklow, has also seen birds die due to poisoning. In all, some 18 birds from those three groups have been poisoned between November 2007 and this week. Only two have survived. The sea eagles have been brought in from Norway. Like O’Toole in Donegal, Mee is now worried about the future of his project in Co Kerry.
The birds have been killed by different poisons, sometimes used in cocktail form. The pattern has been the same; pieces of meat or the carcasses of dead animals have been laced with poison. Some of the poisons can be obtained legally, others are banned outright, such as paraquat. Others are very strictly licensed for limited use, such as carbofuran, which was found in the bodies of two of the sea eagles recently killed.
THERE SEEM to be three problems with the current laws in Ireland. The first is that some poisons banned elsewhere, such as alpha-chloralose, are legal in Ireland. The second is that controls on how poisons can be used may not be strict enough. It is illegal to use poison meat bait for control of grey crows and magpies. It is also illegal to use fallen livestock (such as dead lambs) as a meat bait. But current laws permit foxes to be poisoned with meat baits. This is an anomaly, says the eagle trust, which made a formal complaint to the European Commission on this matter in late 2009. The third problem is catching the poisoners. The Garda and rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service have carried out investigations, including raids of suspect farms. But a Government source accepted that the Garda would have to catch somebody in the act.
In theory, it should be relatively easy to trace a poisoner. A landowner laying poison on lands is required to notify the local Garda station. They are also required to put up notices warning of poisons. In addition, under poisons regulations from 2009, pharmacists are required to keep a poisons’ register and to keep records.
However, these safeguards have not held up in practice. Only some who lay poison bother to notify the Garda or put notices on their lands. Information on record-keeping and the quantity of each poison sold each year is not available to the public.
Says O’Toole: “It follows that people who buy alpha-chloralose to kill foxes or crows are breaking the law. In theory, the Garda or HSE should examine the registers and collect the names and addresses and visit the purchasers and ask them if they used the poison. If they have, and have not written to the Garda, that is illegal.”
THE OVER-ARCHING problem is a societal one. In some rural areas, a tiny minority of farmers continue to use poison in an almost indiscriminate fashion, regardless of its effects on protected wildlife. Some use it to control foxes and crows. Perhaps, one or two mavericks with improper motives are targeting eagles and birds of prey, says O’Toole.
Another problem with tracing is that a dead bird may have ingested the poison in a location different from where the body was found.
In truth, there is evidence that the poisoning is the responsibility of a handful of individuals, who do so for cultural or traditional reasons. Scotland has much stronger legislation but that has not prevented incidents of poisoning. There is also the unanswered question of where the illegal poisons are obtained. Is it old stock or are they being spirited in from abroad? And, asks O’Toole, why doesn’t the Department of Agriculture withdraw REPs payments from miscreants?
O’Toole says that the reintroduction programme has won support from farming organisations, which have accepted that birds of prey don’t pose a threat to livestock. The IFA points to an information sheet it distributed to farmers in Kerry advising them to use alternatives to poison meat baits when controlling foxes and crows. This, says the IFA, is designed to protect birds of prey.
The Minister for the Environment John Gormley said this week that the bird of prey reintroductions were amazing projects with massive educational, tourism and wildlife benefits.
He said that new legislation was being prepared to make it illegal to put out poison bait based on meat, fish or eggs. He’s also looking at stronger Scottish laws which make possession of a pesticide an offence unless the person can show it is being used for lawful purposes. But, for O’Toole, it can’t happen quickly enough.
IN GLENVEAGH, O’Toole and I walk up past the picture-postcard castle and deep into one of the valleys. High up one of the slopes, there are the telltale signs of a nest – small branches and other detritus scattered around the opening of a cave. There is a breeding pair of eagles there. The female is from the very first batch introduced to Ireland in 2001.
Over a decade, O’Toole has spent most of his waking time nursing this programme to life. Golden eagles are not as easily spotted as other birds of prey. But they are amazing to behold, for their massive wing span and the way they use thermal winds to soar to great heights. From the first chicks hatched in Glenveagh, the population has spread throughout Donegal and the north-east.
O’Toole had hoped the golden eagle in Sligo would have opened a new route south along the western seaboard. Now, like Mee, he wonders about the future of a mission to which he has dedicated much of his adult life.
THE LEGAL POSITION ON POISONS
Alpha-chloralose, paraquat and carbofuran are included as poisons under Schedule 1 Part 2 of the 2008 Poisons Regulations. Such poisons may only be sold under the supervision of a registered pharmacist or registered druggist or by sellers licensed by the HSE.
Alpha-chloralose Notified for use as a rodenticide (rat-killer) only. Therefore, use as an avicide (bird-killer) is illegal.
Carbofuran A retailer selling this poison needs a licence from the HSE. It may be sold only to those engaged in the business of agriculture, horticulture or forestry and for the purpose of that business.
Paraquat Banned since July, 2007 in the EU (including Ireland) for marketing and use as a pesticide.
Trodax A veterinary medicine product regulated by the Irish Medicines Board. Trodax (contains nitroxynil) is authorised for the treatment of Fasciola and other indications as described. Available without prescription.
