The Scottish Parliament has passed a new law requiring all grouse-shooting estates to be licensed, in a bid to stop raptor persecution and protect rare peatland habitat. Simon Birch investigates
COUNTRY NEWS
The golden eagle may be an icon of the Scottish Highlands, but conservationists say that for too long these great raptors have been the target of illegal persecution. Now, a new law is set to protect eagles and other threatened birds of prey, such as hen harriers, from their persecutors.
At the heart of the controversy is Scotland’s grouse-shooting industry, which faces regulation for the first time under the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament this spring.
Conservation scientists and campaigners believe that birds of prey, such as golden eagles and hen harriers, are being killed to prevent them from preying on red grouse, the main target species of the shooting industry.
One paper published last year in the journal Biological Conservation hints at the scale of the problem. Studying data from birds fitted with GPS trackers, researchers found that 75% of UK hen harriers that died aged one to two years were illegally killed. The data showed hen harriers were at greater risk in areas with grouse moors.
Legal protections already exist for raptors under laws such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, but RSPB Scotland says the law is not enough, with nearly 60 gamekeepers prosecuted since 1990 for raptor persecution.
According to the RSPB, there were 488 raptor persecution incidents in Scotland from 2007 to 2022, concentrated around grouse moors in the Highlands and Southern Uplands.
WHAT WILL THE NEW LAW DO?
At the heart of the law is the entirely new requirement for all Scottish grouse moors to be licenced, with the aim of eradicating raptor persecution. This has been designed to act as a deterrent for landowners and shoot operators, who now risk losing their licence if the illegal killing of raptors is found to have taken place on their land.
BURNING ISSUES
The Wildlife Management and Muirburn Billalso covers two other controversial practices associated with grouse-moor management: burning and the use of snares to catch ground predators.
Grouse moors are semi-natural habitats, managed to allow wild grouse to flourish. For example, their treeless state has traditionally been maintained partly through
