Environmental Engineering Reference
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Scotland [golden eagles] and Wales [red kites]) as part of collaborative re-introduction efforts, have
also been found to have been poisoned (http://blog.norway.com/2010/05/12/norwegian-eagles-are-
poisoned-in-ireland/), which puts further strain on the logistics and public relations effort being used
to further such important collaborative initiatives.
The following sections provide three quite distinct but equally valid stances (with an emphasis
on Scotland), on the current situation. The fi rst is offered from the viewpoint of a scientist and rap-
tor conservation biologist who, along with a number of colleagues, has been involved with various
re-introduction programmes, including population-level and individual bird monitoring over time.
The second contribution represents the position of landowners in Scotland. The third author works
in a Scottish government laboratory which monitors the impact of pesticide use on wildlife, domestic
animals, livestock and honeybees and works to unite the various stakeholders. This author details
how the abuse of carbofuran is currently monitored, and presents information regarding the mitiga-
tive measures that are now underway.
6.3 The effect of carbofuran poisoning and other illegal persecution
methods on raptor populations in Scotland
Ruth E. Tingay
Member of the Scottish Raptor Study Group and the President of the Raptor
Research Foundation
Raptors in the UK have been subjected to poisoning and other methods of persecution for over 150 years
(e.g., Alison 1856). Alongside the popularity of game bird hunting, especially in the late 1800s and
early 1900s, (and particularly red grouse hunting, a sporting tradition peculiar to the UK), most rap-
tor species were considered to be 'vermin', and a signifi cant threat to game bird survival. As such,
legal predator control was permitted during this period, and thus landowners who were keen to pre-
serve artifi cially high numbers of game birds encouraged their gamekeepers to eradicate as many
raptors as possible (Anonymous 2000). Other groups were also involved in legal raptor persecution,
either directly (e.g., sheep farmers, skin collectors - during the Victorian era it was fashionable to
display stuffed birds as decorative conversation pieces in drawing rooms and parlours; Mearns and
Mearns 1998) or indirectly (e.g., egg collectors, see also Section 5.3.1).
The most direct methods used for legal persecution included poisoning, trapping, shooting and
nest destruction. Their combined effect resulted in dire consequences for many raptor populations.
By the early 1900s, several species had become extinct in Scotland including the white-tailed sea
eagle (
Haliaeetus albicilla
; Love 1983), goshawk (
Accipiter gentilis
; Marquiss and Newton 1982),
red kite (
Milvus milvus
; Evans, Dennis, Orr-Ewing et al. 1997) and osprey
(
Pandion haliaetus
;
Brown and Waterston 1962). Other species in Scotland managed to avoid extinction, but suffered
severe range contraction as a direct result of persecution, including the hen harrier (
Circus cyaneus
;
Watson 1977), peregrine falcon (
Falco peregrinus
; Ratcliffe 1993) and the golden eagle (
Aquila
chrysaetos
; Watson 1997).
Poisoning, specifi cally the setting of poison baits in the open, was fi rst outlawed by the Protection
of Animals (Scotland) Act in 1912, although this legislation did not include legal protection for
birds. The legal persecution of raptors was not prohibited until the introduction of the Protection of
Birds Act in 1954. Following a change in society's perception of raptors over the following 50 years,
several raptor recovery projects took place in Scotland, i.e., white-tailed sea eagle re-introduction
(Love 1983) and red kite re-introduction (Evans, Dennis, Orr-Ewing et al. 1997). Further legisla-
tion to protect raptors was also introduced during this period, including a complex array of Scottish,
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