How low will they go? Nowhere is safe
The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.
Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations. The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.
Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.
And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.
Nowhere is Safe
How low will they go?
Going directly to the source and destroying raptors’ refuges.
Species:
Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle
Method:
Nest Destruction
Date:
2013 and 2015
Location:
Angus Glens and Perthshire
Repercussions:
NONE (No prosecutions; no General Licence restrictions).
The crimes:
It’s well known that many cases of illegal raptor killing happen on or near driven grouse moors. In many cases, a bird of prey was hunting or prospecting over a moorland when it encountered the barrel of a shotgun. Those that are lucky enough to avoid being shot, trapped or poisoned might make it back to the refuge of their nests. But what if their nests aren’t places of safety either?
As well as raising their guns to the skies, people bent on illegally killing raptors have been known to go directly to the source; deliberately targeting the nests of birds of prey in order to prevent a nesting attempt or destroy an active one.
Two such cases were observed on driven grouse moors in 2013 and 2015, affecting both species of UK eagles.
The first target, in 2013, was the nest of a pair of White-tailed Eagles. This year the Invermark Estate in the Angus Glens saw the first breeding attempt of this species in east Scotland for over a century. The pair – two young birds being monitored by the RSPB – had been gradually building up a nest over the autumn and winter of 2012. Everything was looking positive; those following the progress of the birds were hopeful for a successful breeding attempt the following spring.
That was until January came around, when workers discovered the eagle’s chosen nesting tree had been felled with what appeared to be a chainsaw. This was a brazen criminal act; to destroy an active nest in this way is illegal. It’s a case that felt particularly shameless and arrogant; something different to methods of raptor persecution like poisoning and trapping, where the evidence is easier to hide. The felling of a large tree, that hosted White-tailed Eagles and was being actively monitored, couldn’t possibly have gone unnoticed.
To this date, nobody has been held accountable for this wildlife crime because the police couldn’t identify the person who’d felled the nest tree. And when a crime this brazen goes unpunished, what hope is there for other cases, where it can be harder to prove someone’s intention?
Golden Eagles are just as vulnerable to persecution as White-tailed Eagles. As well as using trees, they often build their nests on crags or ledges on hillsides. When nests are built at a lower level, they become more vulnerable to sneakier acts of destruction; ones that allow the guilty person a degree of plausible deniability.
In 2015, on the Glen Turret Estate in Perthshire, an established hill-side Golden Eagle nest was reduced to ashes following a fire. Gazing out across the hillside, a blackened patch of vegetation now marked the spot where the eagles had previously nested.
When something like this happens, gamekeepers can quite easily play the accident card; blaming an out-of-control muirburn that unfortunately spread in the direction of an eagle’s nest. It’s not known whether the burning of this particular nest site was deliberate or accidental.
Our view:
Whether it’s something as bold and brazen as felling a nest tree, not caring who knows about it, or using more underhand tactics that allow room for reasonable doubt – it goes to show that when it comes to grouse moors, even a raptor’s place of refuge isn’t safe from persecution. Illegal killing is frequent enough to have a population level impact on Golden Eagles and that impact comes from areas rich in grouse moors.
Further case studies:
Other cases of persecution involving White-tailed Eagles can be found here, and Golden Eagles here. Other examples of muirburn being used to cause ‘disturbance’ to breeding Golden Eagles are evidenced in this 2021 paper.
Help us put a stop to this.
When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.
This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.
Over 60,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:
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