A pair of white-tailed sea eagles narrowly escaped the fire which ravaged Killarney National Park over the weekend.
As The Times Ireland edition reports today, the blaze came within 300 metres of the nest built by a pair introduced to Ireland under the State’s white-tailed sea eagle programme.
A south-easterly wind saved the predators- among Ireland’’s largest birds - which are understood to have survived the fire that tore through some 2,500 -3,000 hectares of Kerry upland.
Dr Allan Mee, manager of the project which originally brought 100 eagle chicks to Ireland from Norway from 2007 after a century of extinction, confirmed that the eagles had survived.
“This white-tailed sea eagle pair in Killarney national park has been successful every year since they came here in 2014,” Dr Mee said.
“They had been nesting on an island, but went back to their old nest – very near where the fire started – just last year,” he said.
However, he said that the fire was devastating for other wildlife.
Hen harriers and grouse which nest close to Purple Mountain, along with many animals and amphibians such as common lizards, would have perished or lost valuable habitats.
A separate fire on the Kerry-Limerick border destroyed one hen harrier nest and ravaged habitat hunted by three other pairs of the predatory bird.
Some 13 pairs of hen harriers among a total national population of 108 pairs live in this part of Kerry.
They are regarded as a good “indicator” species in terms of the health of an upland ecosystem, according to Fergal Monaghan, manager of the national Hen Harrier Project.
He works with some 1600 farmers in six special protection areas for hen harriers.
Monaghan urged a national co-ordinated “landscape-level” approach to be taken to try and protect vulnerable habitats from such fires.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) said it would not know the extent of damage to the overall site and indeed to species numbers of mammals, birds and other species until the habitats have been checked and analysis carried out by its staff when safe to do so.
Minister of State Malcolm Noonan said the NPWS and Garda would work together to investigate the cause of the fire.
The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has criticised the lack of an active management plan for Killarney National Park.
