Panel: Niall Hatch

Interviewer: Richard Collins

Reporter: Terry Flanagan

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 features an interview with Dr Lucy Bates from the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology about the impacts that the loss of experienced elephants can have on their social groups.

Elephants are truly complex and fascinating animals, and our suggestion for you this week from the extensive Mooney Goes Wild archives is a documentary that we made as part of our Nature on One series about a particularly significant elephant called Hanno, who in 1514 was given as a gift to Pope Leo X by King Manuel I of Portugal and caused a sensation in Rome. Called Pope Leo’s Elephant, it is presented by Derek Mooney and Niall Hatch and was first broadcast on Christmas Day 2024.

To listen to this documentary from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/11683451/

Five fantastic facts about our feathered friends in five minutes

Were you one of the thousands of people who attended Bord Bia Bloom over the June Bank Holiday period? This year’s iteration of Ireland’s largest festival of flowers, food and family fun took place in Dublin’s Phoenix Park from 29th May to 2nd June, and Derek and his team were on hand to bring you a very special live edition of Mooney Goes Wild from the special RTÉ studio and stage at the event.

On tonight’s programme, we bring you one of the highlights from last week’s live show, when our own Niall Hatch took to the stage to treat our live audience – and listeners across Ireland and the world, of course – to a run-down of five fantastic facts about our feathered friends in five minutes. Did he manage it? Tune in to find out.

For more information about Bord Bia Bloom, visit https://www.bordbiabloom.com/

To listen back to our special live broadcast from Bord Bia Bloom, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/22518080-mooney-goes-wild-live-from-bloom-2025/

Cuckoo singing in Co. Wexford . . . but is he too late?

Listener Ann Gethings kindly sent us a recording made recently by her brother Marc on his farm in Killaughrim in Caim, Co. Wexford. Marc’s recording features the unmistakable sounds of a male Cuckoo in song . . . but what Ann wanted to know is whether it was unusual to hear one singing during the first week of June? Was this Cuckoo late?

As we hear on tonight’s programme, though the male Cuckoo "changes his tune in June", as the famous rhyme put it, many are still in song during the first few days of the month. Whether these are males who are late to the mating party or one who have thus far been unsuccessful with the ladies is not clear, but, as Tom Jones might say, it’s not unusual.

For more information about Cuckoos, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/cuckoo/

Robins eating slug pellets

Another of our loyal listeners, Cliodhna Kellegher from Banagher, Co. Offaly, got in touch with us recently, this time by voice-note. She wanted to tell us about an unusual occurrence in her family’s polytunnels, which contain a wide variety of bedding plants. Slugs can be a major issue in such circumstances, so she uses slug pellets to keep them under control. The unexpected problem is that the resident pair of Robins has taken a real fancy to these bright blue "treats", devouring the lot every night.

As Cliodhna tells us, the birds seem to be addicted and guzzle down the slug pellets like they were candy . . . but why? What is it about them that the Robins find so irresistible, and is their pellet habit doing them any harm?

As we discuss on tonight’s programme, there are two key types of slug pellet: ones containing a chemical called metaldehyde and ones containing a completely different chemical called iron phosphate. While the former is extremely toxic to all forms of wildlife, including birds, the latter – often marketed as the "organic’ kind – though not ideal for birds, is definitely not so dangerous. Luckily, it is the safer organic pellets that Cliona uses.

Ironically, the reason that slug pellets are usually dyed blue is to deter birds from eating them. Clearly that has not worked in this case.

For more information about the effects that slug pellets and other garden pesticides can have on birds, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/faq/are-garden-pesticides-harmful-for-birds-and-other-animals/

Terry Flanagan is in clover . . . literally!

Ireland is home to some very rare native plants, and one of the rarest and hardest to find of all is the Burrowing Clover, also known as the Subterranean Clover . . . a name which might give you a clue as to why it is so hard to find. It is thought to exist in only one location in the whole of Ireland: a patch of just a few square metres in Co. Wicklow.

Wicklow-based naturalist and author Declan Murphy has a keen interest in clovers, especially the rare and lesser-known species, and recently he met up with our roving reporter Terry Flanagan on the banks of the River Vartry to show him his first ever Burrowing Clovers and to highlight the species’ plight.

For more information about Declan Murphy and his books, visit https://www.lilliputpress.ie/collections/types?q=Declan%20Murphy

For more information about Burrowing Clover, visit https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Species/28812

The loss of experience in elephant societies

They say that an elephant never forgets . . . but what about herds of elephants? A new study has revealed how the loss of experienced individual elephants from their social groups stops the knowledge transfer between generations. In turn, this puts elephant societies at risk.

The research was led by Dr Lucy Bates from the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, who speaks to Derek and Richard on tonight’s programme about the serious impacts that human disturbance and destruction are having on elephant herds, by disrupting the critical role of social learning from older, experienced matriarchs.

For more information about Dr Lucy Bates’ important research into knowledge transmission culture and the consequences of social disruption in wild elephants, visit https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/knowledge-transmission-culture-and-the-consequences-of-social-dis

The uplifting power of a Blackbird

To finish tonight’s programme, we thought we would share with you a truly beautiful and deeply moving account of a chance encounter with a Blackbird that was sent to us by listener Nuala McLoughlin. Nuala’s words speak to the unique power of nature, and of birdsong in particular, to uplift our spirits and give us hope, and we urge you to listen to what she has to say.

For more information about Blackbirds, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/blackbird/