Raptor killing on grouse moors – Peregrines

Introduction
The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor 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.
We will talk a lot over the next few weeks, while our petition to ban driven grouse shooting is running – click here – about the many different reasons for wanting driven grouse shooting banned – see our blog for a list – but let’s start with raptor killing. Many raptor species have been recorded as being persecuted on grouse moors and they include Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Red Kite, Peregrine, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and even Short-eared Owls. This post is about Peregrines but see also Golden Eagles (click here) and Hen Harriers (click here).
Peregrine Falcons

Peregrine Falcons are amazing birds. They feed mostly on birds which they catch in flight although like most predators they will eat carrion occasionally. A stooping (diving) Peregrine is a sight to behold and they have been measured as travelling at 200km/h in these dives. They are prized by falconers and admired by naturalists.
In the last century, the fortunes of Peregrine Falcons in the UK and around the world have varied. They were reduced to very low levels, extinction seemed to be on the cards, in the mid- to late-twentieth century because of the impacts of agricultural pesticides on their breeding success and survival. With changes to pesticide approvals Peregrines began to recover and are now regularly breeding in inner cities across the world including across the UK. Peregrines are frequently to be see in the skies in central London.
Grouse moors
Peregrines eat many species of bird, particularly different types of pigeon, and waders and wildfowl on the coasts in winter, but upland nesting Peregrines certainly do eat Red Grouse too. This makes them very unpopular with grouse shooters. Each Red Grouse shot on a shoot day is worth around £100 and Peregrines don’t pay for the Red Grouse they eat in the run-up to the Red Grouse shooting season.
And so Peregrines are persecuted, totally illegally, on some grouse moors. Is it just a very few grouse moors – the just a few bad apples defence? The science shows that in an overall picture of increasing Peregrine numbers upland grouse moors are bucking the positive trend with low numbers and often decreasing numbers. We’ll be bringing you examples of criminality aimed at Peregrines in further blog posts but here are three studies that even if there weren’t solid examples of persecution would point the finger of blame at grouse moor management and those responsible for the grouse moors.
- 2014 National Peregrine survey – these surveys don’t come around very often but nothing much has changed since the last national Peregrine survey. This found that Peregrine populations had increased nationally but most of that increase was in the lowlands of England. Upland Peregrine populations had often declined and the study stated that ‘Factors likely to be limiting upland Peregrine populations vary between different regions, and include ongoing illegal killing and deliberate disturbance, and food supply.’. The illegal killing and disturbance is driven by grouse shooting where areas dominated by grouse shooting have plenty of prey available but very low densities of Peregrines and low breeding success (see the paper here)
- Declines of Peregrines in north-east Scotland – this paper is based on the data collected for the national survey but brings in additional local information collected by the raptor workers (the North East Scotland Raptor Study Group) who were studying Peregrines for many years in this area. Like the national survey, in north-east Scotland Peregrine numbers increased, but that was due to the lowland increases whereas upland populations fell, and birds attempting to nest had very low breeding success. Grouse moors were the lowest ranking land use in terms of occupancy of known nest sites and breeding success at those sites (see a summary of the paper here)
- Low densities and poor breeding success of Peregrines on grouse moors in northern England compared with non grouse moors – this paper pooled the information collected by raptor workers in known Peregrine territories over 27 breeding seasons with the land use in and around those territories derived from satellite imagery. It showed that productivity of pairs nesting on grouse moors was only half that of Peregrines nesting off grouse moors even though clutch sizes, and brood sizes of successful nests, were similar across a range of habitats. The birds nesting on grouse moors produced so few young that they only persisted because of immigration from other areas. So why were grouse moor nesting Peregrines doing so badly? It wasn’t lack of food because successful nests did well but, crucially, persecution incidents were much more frequent on grouse moors. This led the senior author of the paper to conclude that ‘The only logical explanation for these differences is that persecution is rife on many driven grouse moors.‘.
If it weren’t for the dedicated work of scores of raptor workers, braving cold weather, heated discussions at times with gamekeepers and long slogs across the hills to collect the data, the causes of these impacts would be invisible. We salute their dedication and their long-term efforts which have made it possible for scientists to demonstrate the scale of wildlife crime with such high quality population data.

These three studies are of Peregrines at a landscape scale. But at a time when Peregrine numbers overall are increasing, they are falling in the uplands, most particularly on and near grouse moors and these ‘unexpected’ population changes are explained by very low breeding success which in itself is linked to illegal persecution.
Landscape scale population impacts are not caused by a few bad apples – they are more likely to be a systemic assault on protected wildlife across many, many sites. The grouse shooting industry is out of control and the solution is to ban driven grouse shooting.
Please sign our petition to ban driven grouse shooting – click here.