Another young satellite-tagged Golden Eagle from south Scotland translocation project found injured with 17 shotgun pellets embedded in wings & body

Press release from Police Scotland (26 June 2026), followed by my commentary:

POLICE APPEAL AFTER SQUEAGLE THE GOLDEN EAGLE FOUND WITH SHOTGUN INJURIES

Police Scotland is appealing for information after a golden eagle was found to have been shot.

Squeagle, a four-year-old female golden eagle, was moved from the Outer Hebrides to the Lammermuir Hills in the Scottish Borders in February 2026 as part of a translocation project run by Restoring Upland Nature (RUN). She is fitted with a satellite tag which allows her movements to be monitored.

After her release, Squeagle travelled through parts of northern England, including Northumberland, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. A photograph taken in Northumberland on Monday, 4 May, 2026, showed significant damage to her wing feathers.

On Monday, 1 June, 2026, gamekeepers on an estate in the Lammermuirs became concerned after noticing the bird behaving unusually and contacted RUN. Squeagle was collected and taken to the Scottish SPCA’s National Wildlife Rescue Centre at Fishcross for assessment.

Scans and treatment revealed she had been shot and had at least 17 shotgun pellets lodged in her body and wings. Experts believe the injuries were not recent, as the wounds had already healed.

Detective Sergeant David Lynn, National Wildlife Crime Coordinator said:

“This was a serious attack on a protected bird of prey which I utterly condemn. Thanks to the quick actions of those who reported concerns, the golden eagle was able to receive specialist treatment and has since been returned to the wild. We are working with partners across Scotland and northern England to establish where and when she was shot.

“Following treatment by veterinary specialists at the Scottish SPCA, Squeagle was released back into the wild on Saturday, 6 June, 2026. Her condition will continue to be monitored through observations and detailed analysis of satellite tracking.

“Enquiries remain ongoing, and we are working alongside our colleagues in Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, supported by the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit to establish who was responsible“.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland, quoting incident number 1361 of 5 June 2026.

ENDS

My commentary:

First of all, plaudits to all those involved with the recovery of this injured eagle and her subsequent release back to the wild – the gamekeepers who found her and chose to raise the alarm instead of their guns, RUN staff for a quick response and rescue, and the SSPCA staff who provided urgent and expert veterinary care and rehabilitation.

Plaudits also to Police Scotland for a fairly fast and detailed press release.

What struck me most about this latest persecution incident is that this Golden Eagle had survived for four-years in the relatively persecution-free Uists, but within three months of being translocated and released in south Scotland, and venturing into northern England, someone had shot her, presumably with the intention of killing her.

This happened just a few short months after another young translocated Golden Eagle, ‘Hamlet’, was found with shotgun injuries on a grouse moor in the Scottish Borders in January this year (see here).

These crimes, along with the shooting of Golden Eagle Merrick in the Moorfoot Hills in 2023 (here), the suspicious disappearances of Golden Eagles Tarras and Wren in the Langholm area in 2025 (here), the suspicious disappearance of a White-tailed Eagle in the Moorfoot Hills in 2025 (here), and the suspicious disappearance of White-tailed Eagle G834 in the North York Moors National Park in 2026 (here) are a stark reminder of the difficulties faced by those trying to re-establish eagle populations in the region, against a residual Victorian culture of zero tolerance for raptors on large areas of land that is managed for gamebird shooting.

The police and others are undertaking a detailed analysis of Squeagle’s satellite tracking data to try and pinpoint the location where she was shot, which looks likely to have been somewhere in northern England. I don’t doubt that they’ll be able to find it, given the quality and accuracy of the tag data available to them, but even if they can determine the location, it won’t result in a prosecution / conviction, or indeed any sanction, because unlike in Scotland, General Licence restrictions and/or grouse shoot licence revocations are not available in England.

So for those who continue to target these eagles, and other raptors, especially Hen Harriers, the risk of getting caught is almost negligible so in their minds it’s still worth committing the offence.

The RSPB and some others will argue that gamebird licensing is the way ahead, so that licences can be revoked where offences have been detected, providing at least some sort of sanction against those who continue to think the law doesn’t apply to them. There’s some merit in that argument, although personally I see licensing as only a step in the right direction and we’re still to see any licence revocations in Scotland, despite multiple raptor persecution offences taking place since licensing was introduced two years ago.

I’d like to see the Westminster Government put up funding to establish a national, multi-agency response unit to investigate raptor persecution crimes, and all other crimes that are listed as National Wildlife Crime priorities. It’s all very well putting up £1 million to explore the re-establishment of Golden Eagles in northern England (see here), but without also investing in wildlife crime enforcement capabilities, any eagles that are translocated are simply going to be shot, or trapped, or poisoned, or bludgeoned to death, with zero consequences for the offenders, just as they have been for the last 70+ years.