The white-tailed 'eagle effect' on the Isle of Wight

This week's podcast hears from the Isle of Wight, ten weeks after the release of six white-tailed eagles in the last place they bred in England, 240 years ago.   Two of the project's  volunteer team - biologist Tracy Dove and ornithologist Jim Baldwin - and Forestry England's White-Tailed Eagle Project Officer, Steve Egerton-Read, talk about whether there has been an 'eagle effect' on the island since their release.  Has widespread interest in the birds spread out to a broader interest in nature and the environment?   Of course, with a project like this, aiming to introduce 60 young eagles to the island over five years, ups and downs are to be expected, and the three discuss how they have reacted to the highs - the presence of eagles once again on the island and the fact that most are thriving and learning to survive independently - as well as to the lows, including the death of one of the birds.

Producer: Moira Hickey
Contributors (in order of appearance):  Steve Egerton-Read, Tracy Dove and Jim Baldwin

Music credit: Realness by Kai Engel, from the Free Music Archive
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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