Reducing raptor persecution in Scotland is improving - so should our communication about it

A post came up on my social media this week of a photo of a bird, the edge of its beak taking a noticeable downturn which made it look like it was sad.

The caption read: "An image of the last Kaua'i o'o, which died in 1985, calling for a female that would never come."

Sadness hit me, and the post made me think of our own fragile bird populations in this country.

It was then a grim discovery to find out from the RSPB this week that there have been 400 confirmed cases of raptor persecution in Scotland over the last 15 years.

According to the British Trust for Ornithology, golden eagles are on the green list due to their conservation status improving, but ongoing persecution is still a threat to the bird across the UK

The crime is the most high-profile type of wildlife crime in the country, and rightly so given how many species of birds of prey were driven to near or total extinction in the last century because of human behaviour, including the likes of the sea eagle.

It was then even more grim to read in an RSPB Scotland press release this week that these crimes are “continuing at considerable scale year on year".

I found the warning particularly alarming given over the last year, as I’ve been walking around Scotland, communities from various corners of the country have talked to me about how there is more of a grip on raptor persecution, with figures appearing to go down, and that they should only improve with more regulation coming in under the new Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill (WMMB).

One estate owner in the Angus Glens told me back in March: "The WMMB is controversial, but hopefully what it will do is stop the few bad eggs who are still committing these offences which is no bad thing."

That same day, I was told about a hen harrier that had disappeared under suspicious circumstances near where I was. I followed up with the RSPB a few months later to find out what had happened and there was no update, but it was still a reminder of the precarious existence of some of these recovering species.

Curious to see which birds of prey in Scotland were worse off under this latest warning, I looked at the RSPB’s most recent Raptor Persecution Map Hub.

For Scotland, it showed six confirmed incidents last year, and four the year before.

Scottish Government figures show in the five years from 2017 to 2021, bird of prey crime incidents went from 24 to 17 to 25 to 11 to 24 respectively.

The official government and RSPB data shows the number of crime incidents at best have decreased, at worst are inconsistent.

But to say they are continuing “at considerable scale year on year” is blatantly not true, and a cause for concern when such wording comes from the leading bird charity in the UK who you would expect to provide fair reporting.

The RSPB report said that more hen harriers were killed across the UK last year than any other year on record, which is alarming. It said northern England continues to be the area where most confirmed and suspected persecution of this species are recorded.

It also points out that some figures could be higher in some areas given incidents happen in remote areas and could go unreported.

But to make a sweeping statement that fails to distinguish the improvement that is happening in Scotland and almost implies the opposite is unhelpful. It undermines the work this country is doing be it through legislation, progress from the shooting sector, which is often linked to these crimes, or the myriad of conservation projects going on to protect these birds and tackle this horrific crime.