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Episode Notes
Panel: Richard Collins & Niall Hatch
In addition to listening to us on RTÉ Radio One at 22:00 every Monday night, don't forget that you can also listen back to each of our programmes any time you like at www.rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.
Tonight’s programme is all about a fascinating project that is underway to reintroduce Eurasian Beavers in West London. With that in mind, this week’s suggestion from the extensive Mooney Goes Wild archives is a previous segment about the plans for this project that we broadcast in February of this year. In it, Dr. Sean McCormack, Chair of the Ealing Wildlife Group, tells us about the scheme to reintroduce these amazing mammals to Paradise Fields in the London Borough of Ealing.
To listen back to this segment from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit
https://rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22218290/
Beaver-y careful: gnaw-it-alls make a return to London!
Back in February, we had the pleasure of speaking to Irish-born vet Dr. Sean McCormack, Chair of the Ealing Wildlife Group, about plans to reintroduce a large aquatic mammal that has been missing from England for over 400 years: the Eurasian Beaver.
These fascinating mammals – the largest native British members of the rodent family – were exterminated due to overhunting and habitat destruction. The species suffered a similar fate across most of Europe, which was a disaster not just for the beavers themselves, but for entire wetland ecosystems.
Why so? Well, beavers are often given as the textbook example of a "keystone species": a unique organism which supports an entire biological community. The way that beavers do this is through building dams that can raise and lower water levels and slow the flow-rate of rivers and streams. By creating and maintaining vital wetland habitats and helping to alleviate the risks of flooding, these amazing aquatic architects bring a lot of value to their surroundings.
Following a successful reintroduction project in Scotland, conservationists now feel that the time is right for beavers to return to their former haunts in Southern England. They have been "beavering" away for some time now, and their plans have finally come to fruition.
In a special programme dedicated to the London beaver reintroduction project, tonight Derek, Richard and Niall speak once again to Sean McCormack, who has some fantastic news to share: London’s first beaver family in more than four centuries is finally in residence. Earlier this month, a breeding male and female and their three offspring were released into a specially controlled habitat in the wonderfully named Paradise Fields in the suburb of Greenford, which is located in the West London Borough of Ealing.
For more information about the beaver reintroduction project in Ealing, West London, visit
For more information about the Ealing Wildlife Group and its beaver conservation work, visit
https://ealingwildlifegroup.com/conservation-projects/bringing-beavers-back-to-london/
Irish Birds in Watercolour by Tony McNally: an exhibition in the Central Bank of Ireland
At the end of tonight’s programme, Niall tells us about a fantastic new avian art exhibition that he recently helped to launch. Entitled Irish Birds in Watercolour, it features a stunning array of portraits of native Irish bird species painted by Dublin artist Tony McNally, in what is his first solo exhibition.
The exhibition, which forms part of the Five Lamps Arts Festival, is being hosted and supported by the Central Bank of Ireland, with additional support from the Dublin Port Company. It will run in the foyer of the bank, which is located on North Wall Quay in Dublin until 27th October, and admission is completely free. If you happen to be in Dublin City Centre over the coming days, it is well worth checking out.
For more information about the Irish Birds in Watercolour exhibition, visit