On Monday the news broke that a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle had ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances on a grouse shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (see here).
I was critical of the vague appeal for information issued by North Yorkshire Police and said I would write more about the details that hadn’t been included in that appeal.
However, since then, there has been a new development. I can’t explain any further at the moment but all will become apparent in due course. For this reason, I’ve decided not to add any of the missing details, at least not just yet. If the new development doesn’t progress as I expect it to, then I will come back to this news story.
Meanwhile, it’s worth talking about G834, the eagle at the centre of the police investigation, and placing his suspicious disappearance in to wider context.
G834 hatched in Dorset in 2025, the first wild-fledged White-tailed Eagle in that county for over 240 years (see here).
His parents first paired up in 2023 after being released in 2020 as part of the Isle of Wight Reintroduction Project, led by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England.
G834 was the product of their first successful breeding attempt, and brought the number of wild-fledged WTEs in England up to six since the project began (one chick in Sussex in 2023, two chicks in Sussex in 2024, and two chicks in Sussex and one chick in Dorset in 2025).
He was the star of the show at Poole Harbour at the beginning of this year, where 30 young members of the Young Birders’ Club, an initiative set up by the brilliant charity, Birds of Poole Harbour, were able to watch him feeding in the harbour. The significance of this sighting was summed up by Birds of Poole Harbour Project organiser, Sam Ryde:
“This was such an important and historical moment. To be able to show a group of young conservationists a wild born White-tailed Eagle right here in Dorset is beyond special. Not only that, to be able to explain to them how these projects work, why it’s important and actually show them the outcome is what it’s all about. These reintroduction projects change the baseline for what’s considered ‘normal’ in these landscapes. For many people here in Dorset and Poole Harbour White-tailed Eagles are a new-comer due to the fate they suffered all those years ago. However, kids will now grow up in Dorset with White-tailed Eagles having always been a part of their local heritage, which they’ll want to continue to protect and conserve”.
Three months later, G834 made the fatal mistake of visiting a grouse moor in the North York Moors National Park where, only a few hours after arriving, his satellite tag stopped transmitting whilst he was roosting nearby overnight and he hasn’t been seen since.
The circumstances remind me of the fate of the young Golden Eagle called Merrick, believed to have been shot, killed and removed overnight from a roost site in the Moorfoot Hills, south Scotland, in October 2023.
G834 is the fifth satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle to have ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances in the last year. Here are the others:
- In May 2025, a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle ‘disappeared’ on a grouse moor in Nairnshire, Scotland (see here).
- On 13 September 2025, the satellite tag belonging to White-tailed Eagle G615 was found on remote moorland in mid-Wales. Dyfed Powys Police stated the tag had been removed with a sharp instrument before being hidden in an attempt to dispose of it. Searches in the area to try and locate the body of the bird have so far been unsuccessful (see here).
- On 26 September 2025, a satellite tag belonging to young White-tailed Eagle G842 was recovered from the River Rother, near Petersfield, Sussex. It had been removed from the bird using a sharp instrument. Searches in the area to try and locate the body of the bird have so far been unsuccessful (see here).
- On 8 November 2025, a four-year-old satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle (G819) ‘disappeared’ in the Moorfoot Hills, south Scotland (see here).
I mentioned earlier that in 2025, three young White-tailed Eagles fledged in the wild (two in Sussex and one in Dorset). Two of those three birds are now ‘missing’ – one (G842) had its tag cut off that was subsequently thrown into a river, and the other one’s tag (G834) has stopped transmitting in suspicious circumstances and the bird hasn’t been seen since.
Two out of three. That’s disgraceful.
And given how long these birds take to mature before they’re old enough to breed (anywhere between 3-7 yrs), and how low their productivity is when they do breed (1-3 chicks per year), it’s no wonder that the project team is planning to release more eagles this year, on both the Isle of Wight and on Exmoor. Given the natural attrition rate (e.g. disease, accidental collision etc), and then illegal persecution on top of that, this population is going to need the release of many more eagles before it becomes sustainable.
Raptor Persecution UK 