White-tailed eagle only from the mainland. Also Rùm hosts large seabird colonies that make for viable prey, including eider, shag ("Phalacrocorax aristotelis"), auks and gulls; as well as one of the few in Britain of manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"). Furthermore, mainly as a source of carrion, were a population of around 1500 red deer and 200 feral goats; otters and gulls were also numerous and available to kleptoparasitize. The birds to be used for reintroduction were gathered as nestlings from western Norway, as this is the nearest native breeding population. The young eagles were either kept in high grade fowl cages or
Christmas shearwater Christmas shearwater The Christmas shearwater ("Puffinus nativitatis") is a medium-sized shearwater of the tropical Central Pacific. It is a poorly known species due to its remote nesting habits, and it has not been extensively studied at sea either. It is one member of a very ancient lineage of the small "Puffinus" species. Its only close living relative is the Galápagos shearwater ("P. subalaris"). The species was described and given its current binomial name by the American naturalist Thomas Hale Streets in 1877. A genetic analysis using mitochondrial DNA has shown that the closest living relative is the Galápagos shearwater ("Puffinus