Missing raptor’s tag found in river

A satellite tag removed from a Perthshire golden eagle that vanished over four years ago has been recovered from a river near Dunkeld.

And an RSPB Scotland officer said the find confirms the young raptor was “killed illegally” by criminals.

In 2016 the young birds’s tag stopped transmitting suddenly on a grouse moor in Perthshire and, despite searches by police and RSPB Scotland, it was never traced.

The tag was then found by a walker and his son disposed on the banks of the River Braan on May 21 this year - just a few miles from the last known location of the bird.

The object was discovered wrapped in heavy lead sheeting.

The tag bore a label with contact details and a serial number, subsequently allowing the police and RSPB to jointly attend, recover and identify the object.

Police Scotland have since held the tag for several months to conduct forensic analysis, which is ongoing.

It all started when the young eagle remained on its parents’ territory until November 2014 after fledging from its nest.

Over the following 18 months, it explored Scotland’s uplands before it moved into Strathbraan.

Within a few days of arriving there, on May 1, 2016 his tag, that had been functioning effectively, suddenly stopped.

It was suspected that the bird had been killed, and the tag destroyed.

A search of the land around the bird’s last known location on a remote hill took place and the disappearance was discussed with local land managers.

No evidence of what had happened to the bird was uncovered.

Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland’s head of investigations, said: “As is the case in virtually every raptor persecution investigation, nobody seemed to know anything and, as is the case with every suspicious satellite tagged raptor disappearance on a grouse moor, spurious alternative theories as to what may have happened to the bird and tag were suggested.

“However, now we know the truth.

“This young eagle was killed illegally. “The tag was clearly removed from the bird, its antenna was cut off, and the tag was then wrapped in a piece of lead sheeting, presumably because the perpetrator thought this would stop it transmitting.

“The package was then cast into the river, never to be seen again - or so they thought.

“This discovery gives unequivocal proof not only of what is happening to these birds, but also the lengths to which the criminals involved in the killing of our raptors will go to dispose of evidence and evade justice.

“It is not unreasonable to conclude that the vast majority of other birds of prey and their tags that have disappeared on Scotland’s grouse moors have suffered similar fates.”

Satellite-tags are used by biological researchers throughout the world to track the movements of animals and birds.

In the UK, their use on birds is strictly regulated by the British Trust for Ornithology and the government’s statutory nature conservation agencies.