Lambs to the slaughter
Sea eagles caught on camera feasting on animals taken from farms
they are the country’s largest birds of prey – and worth more than £5million a year to the economy.
But while white-tailed sea eagles are good for the tourism industry, new pictures have revealed that they are increasingly feeding on farm animals such as lamb, rather than fish.
the images, captured in the lorn area of argyll, found the birds brought eight or nine lambs back to the nest and only seven fish.
nearly 7,000 photographs were taken of the nest during the breeding season earlier this year using motion-sensitive cameras.
the study, carried out under a scottish natural heritage licence, recorded 117 prey items between January and July, nearly 70 of which were unidentifiable.
a total of 21 mammals were identified, including a number of lambs, as well as 14 birds and seven fish.
the camera trial was set up after farmers and crofters complained that sea eagles were killing their lambs.
Crofters on the gairloch peninsula said in 2008 that the reintroduced raptors took 200 lambs in a single season.
earlier this year, local crofter Willie Fraser told a cross–party holyrood group that some people had reduced the number of sheep they kept and others had given up.
the trial is now likely to be extended to other nests next year.
a steering group, including snh, the national Farmers’ Union scotland, Forestry Commission scotland and the rsPB, has been set up to balance the needs of f armers and c r of t er s with conservation.
a number of local groups are also being established, covering areas including mull, argyll, lochaber, skye and Wester ross.
lachie maclean, chairman of the mull, argyll and lochaber group, said the photographs gave objective information on the number of lamb carcasses and how often it occurred.
the images are likely to stoke controversy over the reintroduction of the raptors, which were extinct in Britain in 1918 but were brought back by conservationists 30 years ago.
earlier this year, snh said predation of lambs was not widespread.
in may, a sea eagle was photographed on the ardnamurchan peninsula carrying off a lamb.
Conservationists, however, argue that the eagles take few lambs, while attracting wildlife tourists worth £5million to the scottish economy.
But farmers want scotland’s environment agency to allow the birds to be controlled on mull and lorn.
Farmers and officials from scottish natural heritage met in Oban to discuss the concerns and euan Warnock, local secretary of the nFUs, said: ‘there are now in the range of 90 white-tailed sea eagles in mull and lorn. that’s one sea eagle to each sheep farm in the district. it’s time we discussed adaptive management.’
that could mean relocating birds, offering ‘diversionary’ feeding or felling trees that could be used as nest sites near farms.
a spokesman for snh added that it was reviewing the sea eagle management scheme, which paid crofters and farmers around £165,000 for work directly benefiting sea eagles in the past two years.
in recent years, the release site has been moved from the West highland mainland to Fife, where complaints have also been made about the birds.
a spokesman for Forestry Commission scotland, which led the project, said he believed it was the first time images like these have been taken in scotland.
‘One to each sheep farm’