A British bird of prey has enjoyed such a remarkable recovery that British-born chicks are being used in rewilding projects in Europe.<\/p>\n
The BBC<\/a> reported that the red kite was on the brink of extinction in the United Kingdom by the early 1990s, with only a handful remaining in Wales. However, a rewilding project in the Chilterns involving red kite chicks from Sweden and Spain allowed their numbers to soar by nearly 2,500%<\/a>. There are now an estimated 6,000 breeding pairs across the U.K., a significant portion of the bird’s target population.<\/p>\n Dr. Ian Evans of Natural England told the BBC<\/a>: “In 1991, we had our first breeding pairs and that was really an eye-opener because we thought, ‘Well, this can be successful.’ That was the springboard for establishing other release sites in England and Scotland.”<\/p>\n Red kites have an interesting history. They are primarily scavengers and operate as a flying cleanup crew, scooping up carrion that helps protect humans from disease. They were so common in early modern England that Shakespeare<\/a> mentions them in “The Winter’s Tale.” However, they were less appreciated in the 1800s and were hunted to near extinction because of a perceived threat to domestic animals.<\/p>\n Now, British red kites, whose ancestors may well have been bred in Spain, are being released in western Spain to hopefully spark a similar revival. Though they are under legal protection, the birds are still at risk of illegal activities. A project that tagged kites across Europe found a disturbingly high proportion of the birds were being poisoned and shot. Conservation groups are working to raise awareness<\/a> of the issues and promote action to clamp down on illicit activities that harm the kites.<\/p>\n The red kite’s incredible revival is just one of several promising avian recoveries occurring worldwide, and they’re all made possible by the work of dedicated local organizations and volunteers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices \u2014 and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD’s exclusive Rewards Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British bird of prey has enjoyed such a remarkable recovery that British-born chicks are being used in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[124863,18,19,17,124862,124861,124860,40449,133,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-235080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bird-of-prey","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-natural-england","13":"tag-red-kite","14":"tag-remarkable-recovery","15":"tag-rewilding","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115727184876613566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}