The killing of a female harrier called Annie will reignite the bitter battle between conservationists and shooting set on the eve of the Glorious Twelfth – the traditional start of the grouse season.
Calls for driven grouse shooting to be licensed, or even outlawed, are intensifying as the demise of one of Britain’s rarest birds is blamed on illegal persecution.
Protected Hen harriers are known to take grouse chicks but finding physical evidence of them being illegally targeted remains extremely rare. Five male hen harriers vanished from their nesting grounds across Northern England earlier this summer but in only what can be described as “suspicious circumstances”.
Physical evidence of the shooting of satellite-tagged Annie earlier this spring was revealed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds after a post mortem.
Annie had been fitted with a transmitter when she was a chick as part of the Langholm Moor Demonstration project. Scientists following her movements became concerned in March when the signals stopped. Her corpse was found on a grouse moor in south-west Scotland the following month after an extensive search by RSPB Scotland investigators, liaising with Natural England and Police Scotland.
Annie was examined at the SAC Veterinary Centre in Edinburgh and the findings were made public today.
Commenting on the post mortem result that she had been illegally shot, Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland, said: “This case shows very clearly what happens to some of our hen harriers when they leave protected nesting areas and move around the UK’s uplands.
“This is just the latest incident of criminal persecution of this species, following the confirmed shooting of birds in Aberdeenshire, Moray and Ayrshire in the last two years. It is little wonder these magnificent raptors continue to be absent from large areas of our uplands.”
RSPB Scotland is asking anyone with information that will help identify the perpetrator to contact Police Scotland on 101.
The grouse season is still 24 hours away but the heather-coated uplands have been echoing to sound of pot shots after becoming a battleground for one of conservation’s most intractable problems.
On one side is the grouse shooting industry and on the other campaigners who believe the wild landscapes are devoid of one of most charismatic birds because they are being intentionally driven away.
Four years ago the Government’s scientific advisers, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, revealed the alarming disparity of hen harrier numbers, pointing the finger at “illegal persecution”. Rather than a potential count of 2,600 nesting pairs across Britain, we count harriers in hundreds.