Row over missing golden eagle

A GOLDEN eagle has become the 12th to go missing over a Scottish mountain range in only seven years.

RSPB Scotland said data from the male bird’s tag showed it was living in an area mainly managed for grouse shooting north of Tomatin, Inverness-shire.

But in mid-December his tag stopped transmitting in the Monadhliath Mountains between Loch Ness and Strathspey.

A police investigation has so far been unable to determine what happened to the bird.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, RSPB Scotland’s head of species and land management, said: ‘This is consistent with the systematic and ongoing illegal persecution of eagles in this area. Patience with self-regulation is at an end and meaningful deterrents are now urgently required.’

But David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates, said that it was ‘deeply concerned by the assumption by the RSPB that this eagle is most likely the victim of a wildlife crime perpetrated on a grouse moor’.

He added: ‘Yet again, we see RSPB acting unilaterally as judge and jury without waiting for those professional experts in the police to reach an informed decision as to the actual facts.’

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: ‘This golden eagle has disappeared in an area which has long been associated with the illegal persecution of birds of prey.

‘We may never discover exactly what has happened in the case of this latest disappearance.

‘But we do know the illegal killing of Scotland’s magnificent birds of prey continues – primarily in areas which are intensively managed for driven grouse shooting.’