After an encouragingly marked fall in the number of illegal poisonings of raptors in 2008, Scotland’s performance in this grubby and irresponsible field has risen again to the same level as recorded in 2007.
The figures for such illegal poisonings – mainly using carbofuran, over the past 5 years, are:
- 2005: 17 birds
- 2006: 34 birds
- 2007: 27 birds
- 2008: 16 birds
- 2009: 27 birds
The 2009 performance saw 22 cases of poisoning, some resulting in mutiple deaths and together producing a total of 27 dead birds. The composition of the dead birds in 2009 included:
- 19 buzzards
- 4 red kites
- 2 golden eagles
With 9 incidents of poisoning to its discredit, Tayside showed up as the lead area for this wildlife crime.
The RSPB has called upon the relevant authorities to use the full range of sanctions available against those who carry out such indiscriminate killings.It has warned that experience indicates that the poisonings discovered and logged are no more than a fraction of those actually carried out.
It says that there is now more than adequate evidence to show the negative impact of these poisonings on the populations of species like the Golden Eagle.
Perhaps somebody should check the maths of the fatalities in 2009. 27 birds were recorded but the individual tally for species totals 25?
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For Ged Elcock: No slight of hand here, Ged – nor dodgy maths. We used the word ‘included’ to make it clear that this was not an exhaustive list of fatalities. We concentrated on the headline species.
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