Discover hidden havens for city wildlife as Back From The Brink returns for a fifth season

Back From The Brink airs Sunday 17 May and Sunday 24 May at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player 

The challenges faced by urban foxes, Belfast starlings and Cork falcons are among the stories explored in the latest series of Back From The Brink, presented by Derek Mooney.

Across the world, 4.8 billion people live in cities, leading to the destruction of 60% of wildlife habitats by humans.

Shot across nine European countries, Back From The Brink showcases people who are adapting cities to help mammals, birds and fish species through unique and imaginative conservation efforts.

From foxes visiting gardens for “The Full Irish” in suburban Dublin, to tiny peregrine falcon chicks being hatched in church steeples in Cork, this two-part series shows that no creature is too great or small for city-dwellers to help. 

In episode one, Derek meets Galway’s Jodie O’Regan, “The Fox Lady”, a research student in University of Galway. They spend time in Rathfarnham in Dublin with retired lecturer Martin Hanrahan, whose garden is visited nightly by foxes, and explore how we can help the influx of foxes in our cities.

Meanwhile in Spain, vet Victor Colomar and his team are working to hold back the tide of an invasive snake which has decimated 80% of the Ibiza Wall Lizards, a symbol of the Balearic Islands. After the snakes were inadvertently introduced to the island via imported olive trees, the team try to save the lizards from being eradicated from the island forever.

In episode two, we soar to the steeple of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in the heart of Cork City, where a pair of peregrine falcons named Macheda and Solomon have been helped to nest by the conservation efforts of Sam Bayley (National Parks & Wildlife Service) and Alan McCarthy (Birdwatch Ireland).

Other stories featured in the series include starling enthusiasts in Belfast dimming the city lights in an effort to ensure their breathtaking murmurations continue in the city, hedgehogs in Berlin struggling with traffic and bus shelters being turned into rooftop gardens in Slovenia.

Otters in Wales, European Mink in Rioja and the honey bee in Northern Ireland are among the creatures showcased across the series. 

Featuring footage from Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Wales, Slovenia and Germany, Back From The Brink gives a birdseye view of what’s happening on the ground in our cities to ensure the human and natural world can live together in harmony.

Back From The Brink airs Sunday 17 May and Sunday 24 May at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. 

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Audrey Donohue, RTÉ Communications Lead