Fota Wildlife Park Launch Live Web Feed to a White Tailed Sea Eagle Chick Nest

Fota Wildlife Park today launched a live web feed to the highly endangered White-Tailed Sea Eagle chick which hatched at the park on Saturday April 16th.

The new white-tailed sea eagle chick which has yet to be named was born on Saturday 16th to mother Maeve who incubated the egg for 5 weeks and now will help feed the chick with dad Conor. Speaking about the chick Park Director Sean Mckeown said “so far the chick is doing very well and from the web feed we are able to see that both parents are taking their turn to feed it which is good news.”

To monitor the progress of the chick Fota Wildlife Park have installed a webcam and they are now making this live to the public via the parks own website www.fotawildlife.ie. Head of Marketing for the park Stephen Ryan hopes that the webcam is a success “we are delighted that we have managed to get a live feed on our site as the broadband coverage on the island is quite poor, but I am hopeful that people will be patient and enjoy what is an amazing sight of a White-tailed sea eagle chick”.

The White-tailed sea eagle is the largest eagle in Europe and is also a very endangered species, this is especially the case in Ireland where they became extinct in the early 1900s following the advent of gamekeepers and game production on estates aswell as the introduction of strychnine as a poison. A reintroduction programme in Killarney for the White-tailed sea eagle is currently being undertaken by the Golden Eagle Trust and the National Parks & Wildlife Service and the park looks forward to future cooperation with this project in the areas of conservation and education.

The birth of the White Tailed Sea Eagle also came at a time of change for the eagles at the park as their home has been completely renovated to let them fly above their fellow native animal the Harbour Seal. Mr Mckeown believes the new area will give people a fantastic view of some of Ireland’s greatest wildlife, he added “you can now see an eagle with a wingspan of 2.5m fly over your head which is something we are very excited about and delighted that we can now showcase a fantastic enclosure to incorporate the two native species at the park”.

To view the web cam go on to the home page of www.fotawildlife.ie