Eagles vanish in "sinister" incidents south east of Inverness
Something sinister is happening to golden eagles south east of Inverness
Eight golden eagles have mysteriously vanished south east of Inverness in the last five years.
Conservationists were using satellite trackers to monitor the birds of prey which most recently went missing from hills above the River Findhorn.
RSPB Scotland’s Head of Investigations, Ian Thomson told MFR News that something sinister is going on around the Monadhliath mountains.
He said: "It is surely no coincidence that the overwhelming majority of satellite-tagged birds of prey that have disappeared in Scotland have been in areas intensively managed for gamebird shooting and in areas that have an appalling previous record of confirmed incidents of raptor persecution.
"These eight birds have all disappeared in an area where driven grouse moor management dominates the landscape, and where there have been many previous cases of illegal killing of protected raptors, including the poisoning of a golden eagle and a white-tailed eagle as recently as 2010.
"Given the reliability of the transmitters, the chance of so many birds disappearing over such a short timescale without some kind of human interference is so small as to be negligible.
"The pattern we see here is consistent with the birds having been killed and the transmitters destroyed.
"Once again, the commendable positive efforts of those landowners and estates who welcome golden eagles and host their nesting attempts, including elsewhere in the Monadhliaths, are being catastrophically undermined by those who have a complete disregard for the law, and who continue to threaten the conservation status of these magnificent birds.
"All of these eagles were young birds exploring Scotland before establishing their own territories and with their disappearance any potential future breeding by them to aid the population’s recovery is also lost.
"We ask that if anyone can provide information as to the fate of these eagles that they contact Police Scotland or RSPB Scotland’s investigations team."