Regular blog readers will know we’ve been following the story of the two Langholm hen harrier chicks since the summer: the female chick, ‘Blae’ was reported dead in early September and her sibling, ‘Barry’ was reported ‘missing’ just a couple of weeks later. Since then we’ve been critical of the lack of information that’s been made available to the public (previous blog entries here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here).
Blae’s probable cause of death has now finally been reported on the Making the Most of Moorlands Project website (see here: a blog written by Cat Barlow, the education project officer at MMMP). Before we discuss the probable cause of death, it’s worth recognising that Cat Barlow deserves a good deal of credit for reporting anything at all to do with these two tagged hen harriers. We understand that some of the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project partners were not, how shall we say, enthusiastic about the prospect of tagging more harrier chicks this year. Why not? Well probably because they know very well what happens to the majority of the dispersing birds and this doesn’t exactly cover the grouse shooting industry in glory. We believe that Cat Barlow, representing MMMP and so not directly answerable to the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, has stuck her neck out by reporting on this year’s birds. It’s noticeable that the official Langholm Moor Demonstration Project website has made no mention of them.
So, here’s Cat’s explanation for what happened to Blae:
“Back in September we posted the news that the young female Hen Harrier from this year’s nest at Langholm had died. The satellite tag data allowed the carcass to be located and recovered. A post-mortem showed no evidence of shot and no visible injuries. The bird was very thin, suggesting starvation as the most likely cause of death. As a precautionary measure the carcass was sent for further tests. We have heard today that the toxicology results were negative for the commonly-abused pesticides. The body was not found on grouse moor and there was no evidence of human persecution. It is very rare to recover a Hen Harrier carcass, the last post regarding Barry’s demise October 10th 2012, describes a more common scenario, no carcass, no tag, no evidence of his cause of death“.
This result is not at all surprising. The fact that the carcass had been recovered was an early indication that persecution was not a factor; usually, as the above statement indicates, illegally persecuted hen harriers simply ‘disappear’ (e.g. they are buried or burned in order to hide any evidence of the crime). And they don’t just ‘disappear’ on any old random bit of land – they ‘disappear’ on land that’s managed for grouse-shooting. Without direct evidence though (e.g. a carcass), it’s all too easy for the harrier-killers to deny that systematic persecution is taking place, even though endless scientific studies have shown that persecution is so widespread that it’s having population-level impacts.
The persecution-deniers will probably make a big song and dance about Blae’s post-mortem and toxicology results. They’ll probably claim that they are vindicated and the reports of widespread hen harrier persecution are simply propaganda aimed at discrediting the grouse shooting industry. However, if Blae’s premature demise is representative of the majority of young hen harrier deaths, then where are all the other corpses? If they’ve been sat-tagged, surely their carcasses would be retrievable? Sure, young hen harriers, like the young of many species, suffer high natural mortality rates in their first year. That’s what makes the illegal persecution of these birds so damaging – the population loses extra birds in addition to the natural high losses and the population cannot be sustained with these additional losses (read the Hen Harrier Conservation Framework [here] for a more detailed explanation).
We understand that Barry’s last satellite signal came from a grouse moor in the north of England. Predictably, his body has not been recovered and the grouse moor has not been named.
Well done Cat Barlow for making Blae’s results available. Perhaps the Langholm Project partners will feel inspired and reveal information about all the other lost hen harriers, and not just the ones who’ve died of natural causes.
SNH held their Species Framework conference in Edinburgh last week and this included a presentation on the Langholm hen harriers. During the conference, @SNHMedia put out the following tweet:
“Hen harriers faring alot better in Scotland than in England – 550 pairs in the latest national survey“.
What an astonishing piece of spin! Of course hen harriers are faring better in Scotland than in England – with only one breeding pair of hen harriers in England this year, it’s not that difficult! What @SNHMedia failed to mention was that the Scottish hen harrier population is also in continuing decline and the reason for that, according to the Hen Harrier Conservation Framework report that they commissioned, is illegal persecution!
In other satellite tag news….did anyone see the news yesterday where an appeal went out to the public to help find a lost basking shark tag? Guess who put out the appeal? Northern Constabulary! Not only did the appeal feature on the BBC news website (here), but also on Northern Constabulary’s own website (here). This seems a bit strange, given that the loss of the basking shark tag was not related to a criminal offence, whereas all those ‘missing’ satellite-tagged golden eagles, whose disappearance is more than likely related to a criminal offence, don’t get so much as a mention…..
Raptor Persecution UK 
It would be interesting, no, enlightening if someone, (hint) were to put together a list of all the areas where the last known satellite signals were received from all the radio tagged Raptors which have gone missing, presumably snatched from the surface of the planet by some magic force. It would be even more enlightening if all these last known signals were plotted on a map for all to see and make up their own minds as to the final demise of these birds. You can bet your life that the large majority would have last been heard from and magically disappeared on shooting estates up and down the country. Until someone in the know is prepared to do something along these lines and bring the data out into the open, then we are only guessing, (albeit intuitively) at what is happening on an increasingly alarming rate to these birds.
I agree with nirofo. Lets go further, and name and shame these places. Do it without explicit accusation, but let people make up their own mind. The huntin’ shootin’ fishin set employ every dirty trick they can- we’re too nice about it all.
The problem with this idea is that the exact location anything disappeared can often not be catagorically stated. The nature of the solar powered satellite tracking technology means it is constantly changing its frequency in which it can emit signals according to weather conditions. This means transmitters can go days without emitting locations and with raptors such as eagles covering hundreds of miles in a few hours it would be totally irresponsible to state where the last signal was transmitted when in reality the bird could have been on the other side of the country when and if it was persecuted. Its always worth bearing in mind that technology sometimes fails (again despite what many people on here seem to believe!) Look at the white tailed eagle photographed on lochindorb in 2010, it had a sattelite transmitter on it but it hadn’t been working for months otherwise it would have been found sooner. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing exactly how many fail without any human interfearance at all.
It’s obvious you know very little about modern day electronics.
Are u suggesting none of the transmitters fitted have failed during their lifespan?
No but I think the manufacturers of these devices would have a lot to answer for if they were failing at the rate you are suggesting. Maybe if there’s someone reading this forum who has any information regarding the lifespan, durability and reliability of these transmitters I’m sure we’d all like to know. Whatever the the reason I’m sure there are far more that just mysteriously disappear without trace as if by magic than there are actually failing by normal means. Of course it’s possible if some of these transmitters rely on solar power for their energy source that they have just disappeared into a black hole where no light can penetrate, much like the black holes on the grouse moors.
Names of estates appearing on the likes of Facebook or Twitter might cause a stushie. No accusations just saying in what area the Raptor was last known and let the general public make up there own minds.
I fear that money talks – to be fair like it always has
I can see no possible reason not to give the exact last known locations of missing raptors. I would quite happily publish the data on my blog and on Facebook. This information should be shared openly – after all – what have the shooting estates to hide? They always proclaim their innocence.
Its not a case of having something to hide its the fact that having an estates name published all over social media and networking sites is bad publicity and if the estate is innocent it is potentially slanderous.
I think we may have touched a nerve, Grouseman. Publishing the last known locations of raptors is not slanderous at all. It is only making public a snippet of information. As you rightly say, satellite tags’ locations may well be unreliable, but the accumulation of data will show trends – and those trends will undoubtedly show some sporting estates as zones of mortality.
I’m quite happy to publish this information. If the estates think it’s slanderous, then they can sue. I’m comfortable with that. So – send me the information and I’ll publish it.
All these comments are completely missing the point. After all that was being alluded to on this blog was that blae had been illegally persecuted and the authorites and those involved with the langholm project were all trying to cover it up whether it disapeared in a grouse shooting area or not. At least these post mortem results show that raptors do occasionally die of natural causes despite what some contributers on here clearly think! As for the carcasses of other victims of natural mortality not being found more frequently, well its always stated that there is hundreds of poisoned baits and dead birds apparently littering the countryside (by those trying to discredit the shooting industry) but they are never discovered as these birds mostly inhabit remote and isolated areas. Surely the same applies to any raptors that die of natural causes (obviously excluding those that have been radio tagged)
So Grossman, not all BoP that die, do so because they have been illegally persecuted. Also, radio technology to track said birds, is less than 100%. Given these two facts, it would still be of great value to view the results of where radio transmissions cease. Taking these factors into account will still likely allow for credible probabilities to be fairly judged, unless estates have something to hide of course?
On the subject of Blae’s toxicology report, doesn’t anyone else find this whole case disturbing? I find it hard to believe that it could take two and a half months for a toxicology report to be finalised and I certainly don’t believe that it could take this length of time to discover that the bird was simply undernourished. If starvation was a possible cause, it would have been immediately obvious when the carcass was found, yet there was no mention of this in the original blog post. And why, in the original post, did they omit to mention anything of the location? If it was not found on a grouse moor and they suspected starvation as the cause of death, why was none of this forthcoming at the time?
I’m still not convinced and the latest MMMP post gives the impression that they are trying too hard to persuade the public. Placing the word ‘negative’ in bold and categorically stating that it wasn’t found on a grouse moor and there was no evidence of persecution. Compare this with the initial post mentioning the death. This, two weeks after the death, amounted to a brief three-sentences stuck on to the end of another post. The fact that they did not make a fuss of the death yet they make a huge deal about an apparent natural death, does seem slightly odd to me.
And perhaps it’s my suspicious and cynical mind, but the report states “suggesting starvation as the most likely cause of death”, followed by “the toxicology results were negative for the commonly-abused pesticides.” Does this mean that uncommon pesticides could have played a part in the death, even if it was accidental?
I have a feeling that the whole truth has not been told and I’m quite sure that if someone in a position to dig a little deeper chose to do so, he or she would come up with some interesting results.