An international love affair and sympathetic farming practices may save Ireland's most endangered bird species from extinction.
The last remaining wild Irish grey partridge flock had fallen so low at Boora, Co Offaly, that the Irish Grey Partridge Conservation Trust feared the birds would be lost forever.
While pear trees may be flourishing, the possibility of finding partridges to celebrate Christmas in them had sunk to a level where there were only a few breeding pairs left in the wild.
However, following the introduction of wild partridge from Estonia there has been a dramatic increase in their numbers in their last remaining stronghold in Boora, where special crops are being grown and a habitat created for them. The importation was done because the eastern European birds had the same genetic strain as the last remaining Irish birds. While it was hoped the Estonian birds would give what it termed "a genetic shot in the arm to the Irish population", it was not known if the birds would mate.
The good news from the trust this week was that some of the 21 Estonian wild grey partridge imported last February have successfully paired with Irish mates.
Last spring, for the first time since 1993, 18 pairs of breeding birds were counted, just seven pairs short of the minimum of 25 needed to maintain a viable population in the wild.
This, according to Ronan Hannigan, chairman of the Curlew Trust, will be supplemented by the Irish/ Estonian birds where 16 more breeding pairs have emerged.
Now, with the support of Bord na Móna, local farmers, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Dúchas and the Royal College of Surgeons, the wild population at Boora has climbed to 140 birds, up 150 per cent over 2004 figures.
Mr Hannigan said the help of the local regional game councils and the hard work done by Dr Brenda Kavanagh of the College of Surgeons meant there were now nearly 162 hectares (400 acres) being managed to protect and conserve the wildbirds.
"It has been an enormous effort by a lot of people and if we continue to make progress the grey partridge may become a common sight again in Ireland just as it was right up to the 1940s when there were thousands of birds here".
He said loss of habitat and changing farm practices had led to the rapid decline of the species, which was now fanning out from the well-managed Boora site.