The Scottish Government’s nature advisory agency, NatureScot, has been now been procrastinating for 17 months on whether to impose a sanction on an estate in relation to the ‘shooting and killing’ of a sleeping Golden Eagle called Merrick.
Merrick was a young satellite-tagged Golden Eagle, released in south Scotland in 2022 as part of the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, a lottery-funded conservation initiative which translocated young Golden Eagles from various sites across north Scotland to boost the tiny remnants of the Golden Eagle breeding population in south Scotland that had previously been decimated by illegal persecution and had become isolated by geographic barriers.
A year after her release, which had seen her fly around south Scotland and down into northern England and back, on 12 October 2023 Merrick’s satellite tag suddenly and inexplicably stopped transmitting from a roost site in the Moorfoot Hills in the Scottish Borders where she’d been sleeping overnight.
A project officer from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project went to her last known location where he found Merrick’s feathers and blood directly below her roost tree. Police Scotland later determined from the evidence that she’d been ‘shot and killed’ and that someone had then ‘removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag’ (see here).
There was limited scope for anyone to be charged and prosecuted for killing this eagle unless someone in the know came forward with sufficient evidence to identify the individual(s) responsible. In addition, the prospect of an estate having its grouse-shooting licence withdrawn as a consequence of this crime was zero, given that this offence took place prior to the enactment of the Wildlife & Muirbun (Scotland) Act 2024.
That just left a General Licence restriction as a possible sanction. Not that I’d describe a GL restriction as an effective sanction, for reasons that have been explored previously on this blog (e.g. here and here). Nevertheless, it’s still something and, given the high-profile of Merrick’s death, you might think that making a decision on whether to impose a GL restriction would be a high priority for NatureScot.
I wrote about NatureScot’s procrastination on this case in August (see here), after receiving a response to a Freedom of Information request I’d lodged in June 2025. That response confirmed that NatureScot had received an information package from Police Scotland, on which it would base its GL restriction decision, in April 2024.
Seventeen months on and we’re now at the end of September 2025 and there’s still no sign of a decision from NatureScot.
What’s the hold up? Why hasn’t this decision been a priority for NatureScot?
What sort of message does NatureScot’s procrastination send out to others who might be thinking of ‘getting rid’ of a Golden Eagle in south Scotland, or any other part of Scotland for that matter?
The consequences became very clear yesterday when it was announced that two more satellite-tagged Golden Eagles from the South Scotland project had ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Those who commit these crimes must be laughing their socks off. They know there is virtually no chance that any action will be taken against them, and even if it is, and they are found guilty, their punishment will be little more than a slap on the wrist.
What message, etc…? I think it sends out this type message “We tremble to risk any conflict with those landowners and management companies who can muster heavyweight solicitors, and especially ones who still have some influence in corridors of Westminster. We don’t simply act according to what is right or wrong and we subject our decisions to a cost/benefit risk analysis. We are easily intimidated and won’t act unless we really, really have to”.
That type of message.
“especially ones who still have some influence in corridors of Westminster.”
This has nothing to do with Westminster: it is a devolved matter for the Scottish Parliament and NatureScot.
But there certainly appears to be an awful lot of trembling. There seems to be something utterly rotten at the core of NatureScot… but nobody is breaking ranks. Until that is sorted….
Hi Keith, I said Westminster deliberately, as I hold the opinion that Westminster politicians and Westminster “Establishment” do have significant influence over Scottish Parliament and over bodies such as NatureScot. And the grouse cabal have a deeper foothold in Westminster than Holyrood, therefore they channel their efforts towards Westminster first and foremost and entrust their pals to lean on Scotland. That’s what I have always sensed for several decades anyway.
“Hi Keith, I said Westminster deliberately, as I hold the opinion that Westminster politicians and Westminster “Establishment” do have significant influence over Scottish Parliament and over bodies such as NatureScot.”
Sorry, I think you are miles off on that… I think most Scots would have utter contempt for some effete, landed, old-Etonian trying to persuade some ‘chums’ to do something against their nature.
I’m not sure Westminster has anything with which to ‘lean on’ Holyrood, in this regard, anyway?
I strongly suspect there is something rotten at the heart of NatureScot, like a cancer eating away at decency and honesty.
Not unlike the BBC, in some respects:-{
We will have to disagree on the causes then – as I think the Old Etonian situation is very much alive and well, and contempt for it has long been and still is one of the underlying motives of Scottish independence movement.
At least we agree that something somewhere pretty serious is wrong with NatureScot not wanting to roll it’s sleeves up and get stuck in on this and other endemic wildlife crime / land management issues.
“I think the Old Etonian situation is very much alive and well”
In relation to blood sports (which is what this is about) it is very much alive and well… in England (via the civil servants who operate throughout Whitehall and specifically within Defra).
But Scotland’s landed gentry and blood sporting enthusiasts have their own history and power base… I am confidant that, following devolution, they immediately realised the importance of entryism into the functioning arms – which were important to them – of any Scottish Government… and organised for such.
That is why I believe the ‘problem’ lies close to home, within NatureScot and its sponsoring Department within the Scottish Government. (See, for example, the passage of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024)
These episodes with the Golden Eagles will place great strain on the relationship between the NDPBs and Government Departments (with responsibilities for conservation) and the general public, because their interests are not aligned.
One day that relationship will snap.
https://www.nature.scot/new-ceo-named-naturescot#:~:text=NatureScot%20has%20today%20announced%20the,environmental%20stewardship%20to%20this%20role.
It is sickening that after they released the golden eagles in the south of Scotland in a blaze of publicity, the subsequent events are being kept quiet. The silence is deafening.
Youve got it Keith Jeremy sphagnum until it is taken seriously it’s a complete mockery like you say a slap on the wrist so [Ed: rest of comment deleted]