Get closer to the wild side of Ireland
An account of a memorable encounter with grey seals off the West Cork coast in Summer 2010. – We call them natural disasters: events like earthquakes, tsunamis, eruptions, hurricanes… nature’s raw power at its most awe inspiring and terrifying. Luckily few of us ever experience the full destructive power of nature first hand, but we [...]
“This is a research charter, not a pleasure cruise,” cautioned Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) sightings coordinator, Padraig Whooley as we boarded the boat. “We’re not stopping for anything under forty tonnes!” As the Holly Joe slipped out of Reen Pier the anticipation on board was palpable. IWDG researchers were joined on board by [...]
As you read this article a complex arsenal of chemical weapons is being manufactured at sites all over the island of Ireland. When deployed these chemical agents are designed to subdue, inhibit, mutilate, mutate and in some cases even kill! The manufacturers of this nationwide chemical stockpile are of course plants. Unable to resort to [...]
A giant head broke the surface and a plume of spray erupted seven metres into the air. The head was followed by the graceful arch of an enormous back and, several seconds later, by a small curved dorsal fin. It was a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus), the second largest animal on earth, and this one [...]
As another wildlife documentary draws to a close, I can’t help looking out of the window at our back garden: the patio, the lawn, the garden wall strewn with ivy, the flowers nodding their heads gently in the evening breeze. It all seems so mundane compared to the wonders of the tropical ecosystem I’ve just [...]
One of the benefits of being an island nation like Ireland is that you’re never too far from a beach. But how many of us look at what’s going on literally beneath our feet when we hit the Irish coast? Let’s take a closer look at the wildlife of an Irish beach. Given our national [...]
