White-tailed Eagles on the Isle of Mull

A Rich Biodiversity

Premier League Status

In recent decades, the Isle of Mull has earned an enviable reputation as being the foremost eco-tourism destination in the British Isles. Much of this status can be attributed to the success of the island’s White-tailed Eagle population, as well as the healthy numbers of other birds of prey, Corncrake, Otter, Red Deer, Common and Atlantic Grey Seals, Minke Whale, Basking Shark and Bottlenose Dolphin that can be found around the coast of Mull and Iona. It could be said that the Isle of Mull and its wildlife are in a league of their own. There is no larger avian predator living in the skies of the British Isles, yet their existence on the Isle of Mull tells more about the well-being of the island’s ecosystems than it does about these awesome birds.

Photo courtesy of Henry Wyn-Jones

Top of the Tree

The environmental health of the island is in good shape, as can be gauged by the success of the apex predators in the food chain. Birds, like White-tailed Eagles, are at the very top of the tree, in terms of accurately assessing the health and richness of the Isle of Mull’s biodiversity. That they are expanding their numbers on the island proves that the rest of the food chain is more than sufficient to allow this expansion to take place. White-tailed Eagles are, in effect, excellent barometers of the general health of the island’s wildlife.

Having been missing from the island for the best part of a century, it is fair to say that the introduction of another top predator could have a detrimental effect on some of the species that it preys upon. This may be especially true of those birds and mammals that exist at low or restricted population levels on the Isle of Mull, e.g. Ptarmigan, Red Grouse and Mountain Hare. No research has been initiated to substantiate (or otherwise) that White-tailed Eagles are predating on any of these species, which have small and severely restricted populations on the island. These birds and mammals, however, will be the target prey of Golden Eagles on the Isle of Mull. Twice as many Golden Eagles reside on the island as do White-tailed Eagles, and that both species are currently doing very well suggests that there is little or no problem associated with the populations of their main prey species.

The Isle of Mull has proved to be a safe haven for White-tailed Eagles. Apart from a few encounters with egg-collectors and over-zealous photographers in the past, the population of these magnificent raptors on the island has been spared the problem of persecution that still exists elsewhere on the mainland.