Breeding white-tailed eagle dies from suspected poisoning
An investigation is under way following the death of one of Ireland's oldest breeding white-tailed eagles.
Caimín was found dead in Co Clare last Saturday and initial post-mortem results from the Regional Veterinary Laboratory indicate poisoning as a possible cause of death.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) Project Manager for the white-tailed eagle reintroduction project, Eamonn Meskell, said that there has been an increase in poisonings of the birds over the last five years.
"We have satellite tags on all of our white-tailed eagle chicks that we release, and we find that when they stop or they become stationary, we will go out and pick them up," he said.
"We've lost chicks to carbon fuel and poisoning and rodenticide poisoning, and the initial autopsy shows that (Caimín) likely succumbed to rodenticide poisoning as well."
Caimín has held territory at the Mountshannon nest site on Lough Derg since 2008 and during that time, mated and fledged a number of chicks.
In 2013, Caimín mated with Saoirse, a female eagle who was also part of the reintroduction programme.
They became the first white-tailed eagles to successfully raise and fledge chicks in the wild in Ireland in over 100 years.
"That sparked off a really positive thing up in Mountshannon," said Mr Meskell.
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