🔗 Share this article

Releasing swift keck-keck-keck sounds that echoed across a downtown Berlin park, the large hawks climbed far over the canopy and wheeled before plunging down to scatter a disorganized group of crows that had started to harass them.

"It's basically a soaring superhero enforcing justice to the urban environment," remarked a wildlife expert, watching the sizable light-breasted birds through a telescope. "They're akin to fighter jets."

The Accipiter gentilis is an top predator – and conservationists hope it will soon bring wonder and delight to UK cities, mirroring its success in German metropolises. In the UK, this swift raptor was hunted to virtual extinction and only began to bounce back in rural regions during the 1960s. It is still commonly persecuted on shooting estates and hunting grounds.

Flourishing in European Cities

In different parts of the continent, the goshawk is doing well – even in busy capitals such as Berlin, the Dutch capital, and Prague. From a park in Berlin, where a large eyrie sat in the top of a tree under 100 metres from a war memorial, the elusive hunter preys on city birds in the roads and even rests on rooftops.

The birds have adapted to heavy traffic – while high glass buildings still pose a threat – and are much more at ease with the constant flow of dogwalkers, joggers, and schoolchildren than their woodland counterparts would be with people.

"It is just like any green space in the United Kingdom, that's the magical aspect," commented the head of a conservation initiative, which plans to introduce goshawks to two UK cities in the first stage of a project reintroducing them to urban environments. "It proves this can be done swiftly – with little difficulty, but with so much enthusiasm."

Urban Reintroduction Proposal

The expert is planning to submit a application for the "urban reintroduction" of the goshawk to the authorities in the coming weeks; the plan envisions the freeing of 15 birds in each of the two cities, sourced as juveniles from natural European nests and British breeders.

He expects they will come to the rescue of the UK's beleaguered garden birds by hunting mid-sized predators such as corvids, black-and-white birds, and small crows, whose numbers have increased without control and threatened birds further down the ecological pyramid.

Their arrival should have an instant effect on the "bold" mid-sized birds that prey on tiny species that the public love, explains the conservationist, referencing a similar phenomenon observed in wolves. "This is what's known as an landscape of fear. Everyone realizes the apex predators are in the city."

Potential Hurdles and Dangers

Conservation projects throughout the continent have encountered fierce opposition from farmers and political factions in recent years, as large carnivores such as wolves and ursines have returned to territories now populated by people. As their populations have grown, they have begun to eat livestock and in some cases attack humans.

The introduction of the raptor into urban Britain is not expected to trigger a similar backlash – the species already reside in different parts of the nation, and animal guardians and city residents have little to fear from them – but the species has created tensions even in cities it has long called home.

In Berlin, where an estimated 100 mated couples constitute the largest concentration in the globe, and additional German towns, these hawks have turned into the focus of pigeon and chicken breeders whose birds are being consumed.

A researcher who has studied goshawk adaptation to urban environments employed GPS transmitters to monitor 60 birds as part of her PhD, and states that although there could be possible advantages from using goshawks to control mid-level predators in British cities, young birds taken from rural homes may struggle to adapt to city life and emphasized the need to involve all interested parties early on. "Overall, it's a hazardous endeavour."

Scientific Views

An ornithologist who has studied hawk behavior in non-urban Britain commented it was uncertain if the birds would decide to remain in urban environments and unlikely that the proposed quantity would be sufficient to have a significant beneficial effect on garden bird numbers. "What will happen of those 15 birds?" he asked. "I suspect is they'll probably disperse into the closest countryside."

The project leader is nevertheless optimistic about the project's prospects. The expert, who has previously been granted a licence to track the Scottish wildcat and was a technical adviser for a project that reintroduced the great bustard back to the United Kingdom, argues that handling reintroductions in a "humane way" is the essential element to achievement.

Past Reintroduction Efforts

The conservationist's first attempt to reintroduce lynx to the United Kingdom was refused by the environment official on the advice of the nature body in 2018. A preliminary proposal for a test reintroduction has also met resistance, although the head of the nature body lately expressed enthusiasm about the idea of releasing lynx during his 24-month term.

If the goshawk project goes ahead, the raptors will be fitted with GPS transmitters – an endeavour expected to represent almost half of the projected project cost of £110,000 – and be provided a steady source of nourishment for as long as is needed after being released. In Berlin, the expert stressed the mental advantage of urban residents being able to spot a predator as elusive as the raptor while they conduct their daily routines, rather than placing rewilding projects exclusively in countryside locations.

"It will inject such thrill," he declared. "People visit the green space to feed birds. In the future they'll be traveling to see hawks."