Press release from RSPB:
EAGLE VANISHES IN BIRD OF PREY CRIME HOTSPOT
- The young Golden Eagle, fitted with a satellite-tag, was being monitored by researchers in Scotland until it suddenly disappeared in the Angus Glens – an area dominated by grouse moors and with a history of raptor persecution.
- Scotland’s national bird, Golden Eagles are still heavily – and criminally – persecuted.
The sudden disappearance of a satellite-tagged Golden Eagle has sparked concerns of criminal activity in the Angus Glens.
The young bird, which hatched in Tayside in 2022, was fitted with a satellite tag while in its nest. This work was supported by Forestry and Land Scotland for research purposes.
The tag was transmitting as expected until May 2024 when it suddenly went offline. Its last known location was an area of moorland in the Angus Glens – an area with a long history of illegal bird of prey persecution.
The data from the bird’s tag was swiftly provided to the police for independent scrutiny. Police Scotland, the National Wildlife Crime Unit and RSPB Scotland then conducted a search of the area but found no trace of the bird or its tag.
It is a crime to kill a bird of prey, and anyone caught doing so faces a fine or even jail. Furthermore, legislation introduced in March 2024 means that, if illegal activity takes place on a grouse moor, that grouse moor could lose its license to operate.
Will Hayward, RSPB Scotland Senior Investigations Officer, said: “The sudden cessation of transmissions from this tag strongly suggests human interference, and reflects a pattern of tagged birds ‘disappearing’ almost exclusively on or near grouse moors that has become all too evident in recent years. Had this bird died of natural causes or if the tag had become detached, we would be able to locate and retrieve it. Given the well-proven reliability of this technology, when no body or tag is found, this is highly suspicious. We believe this bird has been killed and the tag destroyed.”
Unfortunately, this young bird is the latest of many to disappear without explanation on or near a grouse moor.
Angus was one of the raptor crime hotspots identified in a Government-commissioned report on the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland, published in 2017. Sadly there has been no let-up in confirmed incidents and suspicious disappearances since then. Most recently, an Osprey was found shot in the Glen Doll area on 12 August – the opening day of the grouse shooting season. [Ed: And a Peregrine was found shot in the Angus Glens on 3 September 2024, here]. And earlier this year sat-tagged Hen Harrier ‘Shalimar’ disappeared in circumstances similar to this Golden Eagle.
If you notice a dead or injured bird of prey in suspicious circumstances, call Police Scotland on 101 and fill in the RSPB’s online reporting form here.
If you have information about anyone killing birds of prey which you wish to report anonymously, call the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
Do you think this will be actioned under the new law?
Hi Marie,
No, because it happened before the new licences were issued and they don’t apply retrospectively.
No! Too many landowners are a part of the judiciary. Ergo: Wolves looking after the sheep!
there has been no real evidence of these birds talking sheep or other livestock.
No just because a 2 year old battery dies ,and no evidence. So no case to push.
Surely these tags are solar powered, so battery expiration doesn’t come into the equation.
I doubt it as those who have the authority to send out messages of deterrent by means of extreme financial penalties and custodial sentences, don’t. They hand out minuscule sentences just to appease the Law. We live in a snowflake society and it needs to stop and severely punish people who break the law, any law.
IF there is already a pair of eagles in the area(which can be 3-400 sq miles they would nt tolerate another eagle in their territory killing would nt be a problem to the resident pair
“IF there is already a pair of eagles in the area(which can be 3-400 sq miles they would nt tolerate another eagle in their territory killing would nt be a problem to the resident pair”
So what? Are you the kind of person who claims Eagles have learnt to eat satellite transmitters, power sources and aerials, and that their bony ribs then act as a Faraday cage?
I suspect that the perpetrators will simply destroy all evidence, bird and tag, leaving an unexplained disappearance and no case to answer.
the law seems unenforceable. Grouse shooting should be banned completely and the countryside managed for the benefit of all citizens.
I respect wildlife, I’m in no way an animal rights activist or anything, but I believe if you breed and use animals purely to be shot for fun or “sport”, I think there’s something seriously wrong with you psychologically, such as being a sociopathic or psychopathic individual, I lived in the country as a kid and shot birds for fun, I grew out of it at age 12, I still feel guilty to this day for some of the pointless things I did back then, shameful behaviour I thankfully quite quickly grew out of.
I would happily take their game bird/grouse moor licences away if they’re found to have shot these birds, I’ve seen covertly obtained footage, clear as day, of them doing so ina highly organised manner, all camo’d up, all Scotsmen, on YouTube in the last couple of days, scum, utter scum.
Nat may or may not be “gullabble” but probably not as gullible as you seem to be. As you say eagles cover hundreds of miles (though for their own sake, not Gods) yet studies show that they disappear in sudden loss circumstances and in disproportionately high numbers on grouse moors.
See:
https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-commissioned-report-982-analyses-fates-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-scotland
Maybe give it a read?
On your point about foxes and badgers, it isn’t impossible that a fox may hoard/cache a large food item or a part of one…but to follow your hypothesis (keeping in mind that as you say eagles cover hundreds of miles – over both keepered and unkeepered ground) it seems to me very strange that the foxes and badgers on unkeepered ground (of which there are many) don’t seem to have a tendency to do what you are suggesting that they do i.e. carry suddenly deceased previously very mobile eagles “down a set” and keep them there. Yet to make the stats work to suit your hypothesis, the foxes and badgers (very few in number – in fact a comparative rarity on the keepered ground in question) must find every dead eagle in the district, must take them all underground and must leave them all there – permanently. Well, what are the odds of that? You’re the maths expert (2 + 2, etc)…
Maybe that convict keeper from Millden Estate was actually digging all of those holes to try and solve this phenomenon by his own practical research! There’s one for the Defence KC’s in the future.
You are right in a way though about water, tags certainly do seem to end up there – aye, thrown in by human hand wrapped up in a piece of roofers lead sheeting!
“Do you really think that anyone is daft enough to shoot one of these, and you actually beleive those videos are fact??? “
We know they are fact.
“What if it just died and carried of by fox or badger down a set, or into water..”
Because the satellite tracking shows that did not happen. Are you thick, or something? Have you seen what the Police say?
Besides which, you lot kill all the Foxes and Badgers, don’t you?
“Grouse arent bred to be shot they breed in the wild…“
Under artificially high numbers, with all their natural predators eradicated, food supply artificially nurtured and plenty of artificial medicated grit.
How gullible and uneducated are you?
Ban grouse moors where this happens.intial 2 year ban £100.000 fine…
A question. I suspect that most contributors to this site would like to see the end of grouse moors, myself included, but are there examples of good management practice? For example, managed in a way that respects the environment, other wildlife and is transparent about its operation. Hunting is abhorrent, but as i suspect we will have live with it, can we help to make it less injurious and destructive?
Sustainable walked-up grouse shooting is operated at Mar Lodge. They also have a very healthy and growing population of breeding Hen Harriers. You can read all about their approach to research and the management of the estate in Andy Painting’s excellent book ‘Regeneration’. The problem is around driven grouse moors.
It really is very unlikely that anybody will ever be found accountable when we have wealthy land owners with perhaps political influence and donate significantly to charitable organisations.
Anybody with authority who would like to see this barbaric practice become a thing of the past, how about placing compulsory purchase orders on lands consistent with fatalities of raptors and other wildlife.
Taking away landowner’s wealth may possibly be the deterrent needed and the land used to provide nature reserves or being really extreme provide housing, after all politicians keep telling us about the shortage of homes.
100% Agree…..
Please get the basics right: activities are licensed. The authorisation is a licence.
Driven grouse shooting has gone on for far too long – it needs to be banned NOW!
Old money makes these stories go away!!
You need to action this is shocking once again.
Well said everyone FFS I can’t stand reading all this I’ve just watched a programme on wild Scotland the guy who looks after the Golden eagles was going to tag one tonights programme it must break his heart all this. They are to be revered as Scotland’s most prolific bird and their own people don’t care upper class scum .
Has any one any information on wether wind turbines are on the area? Is there any scientific evidence that the tags do not hinder the birds in anyway whatsoever? What is the reliability of the tags? At the time of the tag went off line, was there a helicopter or plane nearby? You cannot just assume that it was a crime without evidence. Is it not you are not guilty till proven otherwise? Absolutely shocking reporting and jumping on the bandwagon.
You cannot assume of course, this is why the landowners get away with it.
Be it shooting or poisoning, I believe the ‘coincidental’ circumstances and attitude of game keepers (many but not all of course) to contribute to investigations speak for themselves.
At last year’s Revive conference one of the presentations showed a graphic of tracks of satellite tagged raptors. The main purpose of it was to show where data recording had stopped, suggesting where illegal killing of the birds was happening, but an interesting by product was that obvious gaps between tracks and wind generators were evident, suggesting that the birds were aware of wind turbines and actively avoided them.
“Has any one any information on wether wind turbines are on the area?”
Of course.
“Is there any scientific evidence that the tags do not hinder the birds in anyway whatsoever?”
Yes, plenty of evidence.
https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/scotland/posts/satellite-tagging-birds-the-facts
https://www.audubon.org/news/how-tag-raptor
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2664.12520
“What is the reliability of the tags?”
Very reliable.
“At the time of the tag went off line, was there a helicopter or plane nearby?”
Irrelevant. No body parts found, no CAA reports of any collision. A Golden Eagle is a B I G bird, right?
“You cannot just assume that it was a crime without evidence”
The report says the Golden Eagle disappeared in mysterious circumstances. It is logged in the RPUK stats as a mysterious disappearance.
It is just that there are hundreds of these mysterious disappearances, all on or very near grouse moors: raptors and transmitters and aerials suddenly vanishing into thin air, never to be seen again.
Doesn’t happen elsewhere. Curious.
You forgot to mention that maybe foxes were eating the transmitters and that their boney rib cages were acting as a Faraday Cage (a first for science!).
game set and match
very well said 👏 👍 👌
xxx
Extensive research has been done into issues like sat tag reliability, see for example section 6 in report linked below, just one sentence from there: “In particular, a large sample from the USA for golden eagles classified a low rate (c. 2 %) of stopped no malfunction fate (the comparable rate for Scotland was about 25 times higher) but for both the USA and Scotland there was a very similar (low) rate of malfunction fate (c. 2 %).” And it will have improved since.
This is widely accepted by scientists and those with relevant training, the only people who pretend not to know this are those with an agenda to deny criminality exists, regardless of the immense body of evidence in support of it – and who offer proof of their bias and unprofessionalism by repeatedly posting unsubstantiated misinformation on the topic, pure propaganda, including statements like “the most common fault is the tags falling off”, “digital signals work or they not”, and (today) alleging that “loads” of sat tags fail. If so please define “loads” and provide relevant proof?
Sadly these people are fully aware of the reality of the situation, and if they had evidence to the contrary they could easily provide it, but they never do, their aim is purely to undermine genuine conservation efforts by discrediting the work of professionals in the field. We should be wise to it…
* https://www.nature.scot/doc/naturescot-commissioned-report-982-analyses-fates-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-scotland
Appalling. So obvious the reason why but without proof the landowners know they’re untouchable : (
time the law was changed so that if a bird disappears your licence is suspended until it is found. Trackers don’t just stop transmitting.
I’m fed up with hearing this sort of sh!t. Very rare prosecutions. Fat, greedy landlords have too much power. They pay their estate workers to get rid of the evidence. I know this because my uncle kills Buzzards on a shoot in Stroud. All they are intetested in, is pound notes. They don’t give a flying **** about wildlife.
Wowwww!! Killing an innocent and defenceless bird now that’s being really hard………almost hard enough to join REALLY hard men and women on the front line in Kursk Oblast.
Staiting the obvious Mark Hammond it goes on every where we know that these people don’t give a toss about wild life we had 6 buzzards dumped on one of our moors xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
This whole situation is sick. These incredible raptor species are killed so that human scum can go about their hobby of killing other bird species. These birds have been part of our landscape long before we ever turned up. Human beings are literally the detritus at the bottom of the pond. We use our superior abilities to harm not only other species but our own kind as well. This planet would be better off without us. It’s as simple as that!
Agreed!
I have friends in Edzell (not far from the Angus Glens). Over the years I have heard numerous stories of wildlife crimes being committed around the area which supports Grouse shooting. As other people have commented it is rich landowners not wanting their days shooting disrupted that is the root cause of a lot of these “disappearances”.
Has anyone looked into using microchips to track raptors? It seems the satellite tags are open to being removed and destroyed, There is a vast array of technology now so there must be something more reliable surely?
The problem isn’t with the tags, Frances – they are extremely reliable. The problem is with the people killing the tagged birds.
why not use a tame captive bird fitted with a camera, fly it every day in the area
“why not use a tame captive bird fitted with a camera, fly it every day in the area”
On the off-chance that it may catch, on camera, actually being shot?
Seems unlikely to succeed, on the basis that gamekeeper teams will know it was being flown soon enough. They have bins, you know. Can anyone guarantee the camera would be pointing in the right direction when the fatal shot was fired? And that the perpetrator would then be identifiable?
Also, the major point of the welfare of the ‘captive bird’!
“Has anyone looked into using microchips to track raptors?”
Microchips do not transmit because they do not have a power supply (they are passive devices), and to be able to transmit (especially to a satellite) requires both more circuitry (hence, bigger), an aerial (!) and substantial, continuous, power (hence, very much bigger still).
(Think mobile phones: these are at the very limit of modern technology and think how big/heavy the circuitry, short-lived battery and aerial components are.)
If the microchip cannot transmit, it cannot be tracked.
Microchips in pets work only when a scanner emitting radio waves is placed very close to the chip (we are talking a couple of inches, not hundreds of miles) and the power from the radio waves activates the chip into transmitting its ID number upto a couple of inches or so.
Dan, the only wildlife police officer in the Highlands investigates the mysterious disappearance of a satellite-tagged Golden Eagle (summer 2024?)
From 35 minutes in:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00257vx/highland-cops-series-2-episode-4
The entire programme is pretty good…