Podcast · Tech & Science

Mooney Goes Wild

by RTÉ Radio 1 · English · Tech & Science

Derek Mooney and guests explore the natural world in all its forms. Listen live every Monday at 10pm on RTÉ Radio 1.

New episodes: Several times a day
Typical length: 15 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 54 minNew

Mooney Goes Wild - Monday October 12th 2026

Derek Mooney and guests explore the natural world in all its forms. Tonight: red squirrels make a comeback thanks to pine martens; a Cork pub’s unexpected squirrel visitor; how animals heal themselves with Prof. Jaap de Roode; Terry Flanagan’s new documentary on Painted Lady butterfly! For more visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/2026/1012/1595016-mooney-goes-wild-monday-october-12th-2026/. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

12 Oct 2026 · 12 minNew
Reds Rise Again: The Great Squirrel Comeback
Dr Colin Lawton reveals the latest 2026 survey results showing red squirrels recovering and pine martens spreading across Ireland... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
12 Oct 2026 · 8 minNew
Nuts In The Snug: Red Squirrel In A Pub!
Rory Cobbe investigates how a red squirrel turned a Cork pub into an assault course and became an internet sensation! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
12 Oct 2026 · 4 minNew
Nature On One: The Painted Lady
As he makes his new documentary, Terry Flanagan joins Derek to reveal the remarkable migration of the Painted Lady butterfly and Ireland’s bumper numbers in 2025... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
12 Oct 2026 · 30 minNew
Feeling Under The Weather? Ask An Insect!
Prof Jaap de Roode joins Derek and the panel to explore how insects and other animals use nature to treat illness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
5 Oct 2026 · 17 min
Can You Be-Leaf It? TCD Herbarium Reopens After Refurb
Terry Flanagan & Éanna Ní Lamhna visit TCD’s Herbarium to meet curator Dr Peter Moonlight after its major refurbishment... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
5 Oct 2026 · 32 min
Where Did Bats First Take Flight?
Prof Emma Teeling reveals how new UCD research has traced the origins of bats to Europe 60–65 million years ago... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
5 Oct 2026 · 4 min
Saving A Spider In The Shower
Niall Hatch explains how spiders survive getting wet, and why House Spiders so often find themselves trapped in our baths... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
28 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Gull-ible Youngsters!
Derek kicks off tonight’s programme with a challenge for Niall: can he identify a mystery bird sound from a video that Derek shot with his phone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
28 Sep 2026 · 18 min
Barn Owl Nestboxes At Work
Terry Flanagan meets June Woodward in Co Clare to see her successful Barn Owl nestbox and its remarkable occupants. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
28 Sep 2026 · 16 min
Lapwings Thriving Once More On The Mullet Peninsula
Dave Suddaby explains how BirdWatch Ireland has helped Lapwings recover at Annagh Marsh on the Mullet Peninsula. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
28 Sep 2026 · 14 min
A Hard One To Swallow!
Catherine Ó Flathartaigh shares her remarkable footage of a rare white Swallow with Niall, who explains leucism and albinism. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Sep 2026 · 16 min
Saving Africa’s Penguins: SANCCOB
Thom Breathnach tells us about SANCCOB in Cape Town, and their efforts to save the Critically Endangered African Penguin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Sep 2026 · 14 min
Tiger Cubs In Fota Wildlife Park, Cork
Rory Cobbe meets Róisín FitzGerald, John Leahy & Aileen Tennant at Fota to learn more about their new Sumatran Tiger cubs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Nairobi Flyways & World’s Birds
Niall Hatch reports on BirdLife’s State of the World’s Birds and the Nairobi Flyways Declaration. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Sep 2026 · 13 min
Stars In Their Eyes At Dunsink
Terry Flanagan learns night photography from Anthony Lynch at Dunsink Observatory. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
21 Sep 2026 · 3 min
Wildlife On Rising Time: Robins & Insects
Niall Hatch answers listeners’ questions about elusive summer Robins and why insects survive crashing into windows. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
14 Sep 2026 · 12 min
2026: A Good Year For Irish Butterflies
Terry Flanagan visits Declan Murphy in Newcastle, Co Wicklow, to discover why 2026 has been a good year for Irish butterflies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
14 Sep 2026 · 23 min
Do Farmed Salmon Affect Wild Fish?
Prof Philip McGinnity discusses the impact of farmed Atlantic Salmon interbreeding with wild Irish salmon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
14 Sep 2026 · 18 min
Fishy Behaviour In Arctic Norway
Ken Whelan explores Arctic Char, Grayling, invasive Pink Salmon and King Crab in northern Norway and Finland. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
7 Sep 2026 · 52 min
Mooney Goes Wild - Monday September 7th 2026
Derek Mooney and guests explore the natural world in all its forms. For three decades, Mooney Goes Wild reporter Terry Flanagan has been roaming the highways and byways of Ireland in search of answers to your wildlife queries. He's been up every tree, down every ditch and through every hedge in pursuit of a good story - if there's a mystery in the natural world, Terry is usually the man to solve it... he is, after all, the Sherlock Holmes of RTÉ wildlife reporting! Over the years he has investigated countless countryside curiosities that have left listeners scratching their heads! Tonight…
31 Aug 2026 · 32 min
The Ghost Of The Mountains: Unraveling The Secrets Of The Snow Leopard
The secretive, almost supernatural, reputation of the Snow Leopard, which lives high in the mountain ranges of Central and Southern Asia, has led to the species being dubbed The Ghost of the Mountains - which just so happens to be the title of a new book about these remarkable big cats by Dr. Kulbhushansingh (Kullu) Suryawanshi. He joins us on the line to tell us more about these mysterious animals and the harsh, hostile environments they are perfectly adapted to. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
31 Aug 2026 · 53 min
Mooney Goes Wild - Monday August 31st 2026
Derek Mooney and guests explore the natural world in all its forms. On tonight's show: 🪶Why Woodpigeons are still nest‑building in late August 🐦A listener’s mystery pigeon with extravagant feathered feet ❄️We learn about Snow Leopards with Dr Kullu Suryawanshi — author of The Ghost of the Mountains For more information on tonight's show, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/2026/0830/1589743-mooney-goes-wild-monday-august-31st-2026/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
31 Aug 2026 · 7 min
Wild Ireland
Next week’s programme, which will be broadcast on Monday September 7th, will be a special compilation of some of the very best reports by our intrepid roving reporter, Terry Flanagan. To whet your appetite, we close tonight’s programme with one of Terry’s reports, first broadcast in 2019, from the Wild Ireland nature sanctuary in Co. Donegal, home to a wide array of creatures which once roamed wild in Ireland but which, sadly, have been lost to us, including Wolves, Brown Bears, Lynx and Wild Boars. There, Terry spoke with the park’s founder, Killian McLaughlin, about the inspiration behind…
31 Aug 2026 · 15 min
Pigeons Galore!
From Dastardly & Muttley's "Stop The Pigeon" to "Pigeon Street", there's one bird that's the focus of our first item on tonight's show! Derek recently spotted a Woodpigeon carrying a stick in its beak, something that is a common sight in the spring when nest-building is in full swing... but why in August? And we learn why some fancy pigeons have frilly, feathered legs! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
17 Aug 2026 · 36 min
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest
Did you know that rainforests are not confined to the tropical regions of the world and can even be found in Ireland? To find out more, you will definitely want to tune into the forthcoming RTÉ television programme An Irish Atlantic Rainforest. This two-part series tells the story of how Eoghan Daltun, a sculptor and leading climate activist, resurrected his very own rainforest on the Beara Peninsula. In 2009, Eoghan purchased a small cottage close to the village of Eyeries in Co. Cork. It came with a plot of tree-covered land, untouched for roughly a century, which he recognised as being…
17 Aug 2026 · 4 min
Roger Casement: An Exploration Of His Deep Love Of Nature
Roger Casement (1864–1916) is best remembered as one of Ireland's most significant historical figures, but before his execution for his role in the 1916 Easter Rising, he earned an international reputation as a humanitarian and diplomat. Serving as a British consul in Africa and South America, Casement exposed the brutal exploitation and abuse of indigenous peoples in the Congo Free State and the Peruvian Amazon. His reports helped bring global attention to these atrocities and established him as one of the leading human rights campaigners of his time. What is less well-known to the general…
17 Aug 2026 · 12 min
Caterpillars Attacking Horse Chestnut Trees
Regular Mooney Goes Wild listener Nikola Brady got in touch with us with a query. She regularly walks her dog along a country route close to her house in Kilcock, Co. Kildare and recently noticed a problem with the Horse Chestnut trees lining those back roads. The leaves of many of the trees that they pass seem to have shrivelled up, and Nikola was concerned that they might be dying. She sent in some photos and asked whether we could identify the problem and suggest what might be done to help the trees. Suitably intrigued, we dispatched our roving reporter Terry Flanagan to Co. Kildare to…
27 Jul 2026 · 23 min
Headstarting Chicks Helps Ireland's Curlew Numbers
Ireland's curlew population has plummeted, but an ambitious conservation project is offering new hope. Twenty 'headstarted' chicks, hatched from eggs flown in from Yorkshire, were reared at Dublin Zoo before being released at Lough Corrib. Owen Murphy explains how the project is helping save this iconic bird...
27 Jul 2026 · 10 min
The Sounds Of Clara Bog
This week's curlew-themed programme continues at Clara Bog, Co. Offaly, where visitors can now enjoy a new audio soundwalk. Created by Music Generation Offaly, composer Fiona Linnane and local TY students, it blends wildlife sounds, poetry and music. Terry Flanagan explores the bog with Ger Ralph from Music Generation Offaly...

About Mooney Goes Wild

Derek Mooney and guests explore the natural world in all its forms. Listen live every Monday at 10pm on RTÉ Radio 1.

Mooney Goes Wild is a English tech & science podcast from RTÉ Radio 1. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: RTÉ Radio 1
Language: English
Category: Tech & Science
New episodes: Several times a day
Typical length: 15 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id204724562

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