To lure the endangered golden eagle back to the Highlands of Scotland, renowned conservationist Roy Dennis built an elaborate nest on a remote cliff. The nest is woven together with arm-sized sticks that are perched on an extremely steep ledge and held together by a piece of dangling safety rope.
Golden eagles are very sensitive to disturbance, so the conservationists knew it might take some time for them to come. Five years since the nest was built, another conservationist found a pair of golden eagles had vastly extended the structure of the nest.
And just a week ago, the eagles first chick was successfully fledged, marking the first golden eagle chick to hatch in the Highlands of Scotland in 40 years.
The conservationists say this is a huge success story considering the golden eagle, Britain’s second-largest bird of prey after the white-tailed eagle, was driven to extinction in England and Wales in the mid-1800s after centuries of persecution.
