Ireland’s curlew population is set to be supplemented by eggs transported from the Yorkshire Dales in a new partnership involving conservation groups here and in the UK.
A new licensing agreement is facilitating the conservation effort, and the first 20 chicks were released on Friday, having been carefully managed and cared for at Irish incubation facilities until they were ready for release.
Since the 1980s, the number of breeding curlews in Ireland has dropped by an estimated 98 per cent, with the change from haymaking to silage and the draining and cutting of bogs destroying the ground-nesting bird’s breeding habitat.
So far, conservation efforts have centred around protecting the existing population through measures like nest protection, headstarting and predator control. Data suggests small increases in recent years, but the number of breeding curlew pairs in Ireland is estimated to be between 100 and 150.
RM Block
This project aims to revive the curlew population by drawing on the stable number of eggs on the Yorkshire Dales, a scenic area that covers hundreds of square miles in the north of England. There are plans for 200 birds to be added to the existing population in Ireland by 2030.
Forty eggs were transported from the UK in May by the Breeding Waders EIP team for early-stage rearing at the Centre for Species Survival in Dublin Zoo. When the chicks reached 15 to 20 days old, they were cared for at specially designed aviaries in order to acclimatise to the natural conditions in their new environment.
[ The curlew’s call is giving way to silence but not everyone is giving upOpens in new window ]
Breeding Waders European Innovation Partnership (EIP) senior project manager Owen Murphy said the steps involved in conservation initiatives are “not taken lightly”, and that “detailed assessments of a species population” are carried out.
Importation will supplement the headstarting programme, which is a conservation method that involves rescuing vulnerable young eggs or animals from the wild and raising them safely until they are capable of surviving on their own.
Niall Ó Donnchú, director general with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, said “science and partnerships have the power to transform even our greatest conservation challenges”, adding that the Breeding Waders EIP is “breaking new ground in nature conservation”.
Curlew chicks will continue to be released in different locations around the country over the coming weeks, with a number of them fitted with GPS tags so that their movements can be followed and tracked.
In a statement, Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan described the scale of the intervention as “unprecedented” and said it will “support recovery of the species and strengthen the long-term viability of curlew in Ireland”.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon also welcomed the initiative, describing it as the “perfect example of how EIPs bring like-minded people together to overcome challenges and achieve outcomes that would not have happened otherwise”.
The project is the result of a collaboration between the EIP and the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, and is supported by the NPWS of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.
