Flying High

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Peregrine Falcon is not only the fastest animal on our planet, but also the most widely distributed bird of prey, found on every continent apart from Antarctica.

In the 1960s Falco Peregrinus was close to extinction, but it has since made a remarkable comeback, hailed as a global success story of conservation.

Recent decades have also seen the trend of this speedy raptor notably settling, nesting and flourishing alongside us, in man-made environments around the globe.

Broadcaster, naturalist and writer David Lindo, a.k.a. ‘The Urban Birder’ travels from a hospital in London to a museum in Madrid and a power station in Kentucky, to explore how an iconic, apex predator is bouncing back from the brink, thriving in cities and towns across the world.

Along the way David highlights their incredible hunting ability and how both our responsibility for the decline of the Peregrine and our pervading fondness for it, have helped to contribute to its astounding recovery.

Image: Getty images

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello. Natalie, hi, David. How are you?
0:13.0	I'm good, thank you.
0:14.0	Listen, we're on our way, looking forward to it, just down the road.
0:17.0	Are you on the Fulim Palace Road?
0:19.0	Yes.
0:20.0	The female is on the nest ledge.
0:21.0	As you're walking, you should see her on the ledge. I'm really
0:23.7	excited to talk to you about them. All right, see in a minute. Okay, see you soon.
0:28.1	Bye. The Peregrun Falcon is the fastest animal on our planet.
0:40.0	Capable reaching speeds of over 240 miles an hour.
0:45.0	Well, I'm so fascinated that they dive bomb things and they can go so fast.
0:50.0	A lot of people, they come here to do the sighting of the
0:53.6	falcons in the tower.
0:54.8	Peragans are just a great way for people to engage with nature because they are
0:58.8	so charismatic.
1:00.1	Beyond its remarkable speed and hunting ability, the Peregrine is truly the world's bird
1:08.8	of prey.
1:09.8	Following one of the most successful conservation efforts in human history, it's now more widespread than any of a raptor found on every continent except Antarctica.
1:20.0	You find better in Australia, in Africa, in Europe, in America, so they are worldwide, no?
1:29.0	I'm David Lindo, otherwise known as the Urban Burda.
1:32.0	As a naturalist and writer I've spent my career
1:35.2	pursuing my obsession for birds and just like many others over the decades I've been
	...

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