Record numbers of Norwegian sea eagles are exported to Europe
-
Loading... - ethan riley
- 16 Aug 2022
- 84 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Norway has Europe's largest nesting population of white-tailed sea eagles.
The population is now so large and viable that the Scandinavian country can help other European countries that want the species back on their own coasts.
This summer, researchers sent a record number of white-tailed sea eagle fledglings abroad.
New record in sea eagle exports
A total of 35 chicks have been exported this summer.
“We have sent 16 fledglings to Ireland and 19 to Spain,” Duncan Halley at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) tells sciencenorway.no.
This is the largest amount thus far in the project.
“It has been busy and extra demanding because we had to isolate all the birds due to the risk of bird flu. All tested negative in Norway before export,” Halley says.
Frøya is one of the best areas
The chicks are taken from nests along the northwest coast of Norway, in particular the counties of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal. Many have been collected from the island Frøya.
This is because most of the eagles there hatch on the ground instead of on cliffs or in tall trees, which makes it easier to capture them.
It is time-consuming to find suitable nests because there must be at least two eggs in the nest before they can remove one.
“We must have examined about 200 nests to find enough chicks,” Halley says. Read More…
