In February this year it was reported that a young golden eagle, named ‘Sula’, had been found dead on the Queensberry Estate, an estate within the Buccleuch portfolio in Dumfriesshire (see here).
She was from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, where eagles are being translocated from other Scottish regions in an effort to boost the declining population in the south. Sula had been translocated in 2022.
The Veterinary Investigation Centre at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) in Dumfries conducted a variety of tests (toxicology, histopathology, virology, bacteriology and parasitology) and have now reported that the investigation did not find a definitive cause of death, but did conclude that Sula had been in “very fit condition” before her death. Avian flu was ruled out.
The South Scotland Golden Eagle Project website can be found here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I have had reservations ever since this project was launched, because persecution had not been much reduced prior to the start of the project. The survival rate of the birds, despite the natural deaths which will always occur, does seem to indicate that it has so far been successful. Clearly, there has been either a noticeable change in the estates in the area, or I and others, were too pessimistic. I should have had more faith that it could succeed, and we should soon hear of more nesting successes, perhaps.
Would it be too cynical to suggest that the reason the shooting estates support the project is because they hope the presence of Golden Eagles will suppress the numbers of other raptors?
It died. It happens in the wild. It’s a real shame but it clearly wasn’t poisoned, trapped or shot which is [Ed: rest of comment deleted because….I just can’t be arsed with the infantile attempts at provocation]
It’s amazing how most die on grouse moors. This has to stop
All that will happen is we will lose the grouse shooting. It’s up to the keepers and everyone to save our way of life.it has to stop now.
Editor, you should perhaps have left the whole comment for us all to see where Micky was coming from. It might then be obvious if he is from the shooting community, and therefore offering a totally biased opinion. Having said that, love your comment!
😂
Make it an automatic 2yr prison sentence AND closure of any shooting estate for 5yrs where killing raptors by gamekeepers or any staff is proven.
Double that!
Five years prison and loss of shooting licence for 10 years.
I’m sure it said the cause of death wasn’t identified…..
Why have a pop at the shooting community when there’s no evidence here to say they were involved
It clearly just died maybe it had its covid vaccines!!!!! Funny how they all die on grouse moors?? Well they are hardly going to die in the middle of a town center or in a woodland. When all grouse moors are shut down in the future lets see how many birds of prey are around then I’m guessing alot less then there are now! without fox control you can kiss goodbye to the Hen Harrier, I can see this & I’m not a shooting person
Land management and protection of vulnerable species doesn’t have to be tied to land solely being used as a shooting estate. There is no reason why shooting estates can’t be turned into conservation areas where grouse and other game bird shooting is prohibited, but where the land is properly managed for the conservation of nature and wildlife. This is probably most peoples definition of what a National Park should be- rather than the pathetic set up that exists in the UK!
Yet the part of Northumberland that (if one follows the fortunes of harrier breeding outcomes) that is consistent in producing harriers has very little / patchy fox control via gamekeeper. By the standards of the grouse moors to the south (N Pennines, YD, etc), this area is positively infested with foxes, crows and ravens. But – and heres the funny thing, when those harriers travel to those fox-free idylls, or their offspring try to pair up and breed in aforementioned lovely fox-free paradise (kindly laid on by some big DGS estate) they go “missing” in disproportionately high numbers. It’s all in the research & monitors reports.
“without (sic) fox control you can kiss goodbye to the Hen Harrier”
Is this true, folks?
Is it buggery…
“In conclusion, no clear evidence exists for a beneficial effect of the control of foxes and other predators by moorland gamekeepers on hen harrier nest success. Even a generous assessment of the magnitude of such an effect, consistent with the available data, indicates that its effect on hen harrier population growth would be small relative to that of persecution of harriers on grouse moors.”
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2664.1999.00419.x
“without fox control you can kiss goodbye to the Hen Harrier”
How do you explain the existence of Hen Harriers before the gun – and the shooting of game – was invented? Nobody ‘controlled’ fox numbers on moorland then, because the moors were unproductive, wild places. And yet Hen Harriers managed to exist.
Strange?
The thing which draws foxes to the moors is a plentiful supply of prey, and once land owners encouraged artificially high numbers of ‘game’, artificially high numbers of foxes start to appear. This, in turn, led landowners to ruthlessly ‘control’ fox numbers.
And in their greed, they also set about ruthlessly ‘controlling’ Hen Harriers… and Buzzards, and Eagles, and Ravens, and Crows, and Mountain Hares… and doing all the environmental damage that they do in order to promote the numbers of ‘game’.
Which are then, pointlessly, shot.
The problem is not the fox, but the artificially high numbers of ‘game’.
It’s about time these grouse Moor were closed let’s face it we all know it the cause of raptor persecution shot possioned trapped, all because of money .it will never end until the grouse shooting is stopped .
Yes they should all be closed permanently. Anyone wo takes life for pleasure and/ or money cannot be defined as a human being.
[Ed: comment deleted – serial troll]
This bird is viewed by the report as in “very fit condition”. If this is the case does it follow that eagles in “very fit condition” are commonly found dead? Seems a bit of an unlikely event to me.
If this eagle is still in a freezer perhaps it should be sent to an other laboratory for further investigation along with the report from SRUC. There has to be a reason or reasons for an eagle in “very fit condition” to die.
I live quite close to this estate and have some inside knowledge of it. While I would love to post details it is a certainty that these would be censored. It is possible that [Ed: rest of comment deleted as libellous (altho I can see you were trying not to be)]
I cannot concur with your approach that the material I posted was libellous. Defamation requires the material to be untrue and malicious. Anything posted of this nature online would constitute libel. The comments I posted were neither untrue, nor malicious, they were not in the nature of libel. This is not the first time you have deleted posts of mine which were lawful. I take the approach that if someone considers they have been libelled then they are welcome to sue me. Take me to court. No one has to date.
[Ed: Hi Frances, thanks for your note. Please don’t take my editing personally. As publisher, I have a legal responsibility for what is published on this blog & I prefer to apply caution rather than recklessness if something appears to be defamatory or has the potential to be perceived as being defamatory. It doesn’t mean that you intended to be libellous. Bottom line is, I’m responsible for it, not you ]