Tags plan to protect Scotland’s eagles

Fitting golden eagles with satellite tags that send a distress signal if they come to harm could help secure convictions against wildlife criminals, it has been claimed.

Three golden eagle chicks in the Cairngorms National Park recently became the first in Scotland to be fitted with cutting edge “Celltrack” tags.

The high-tech devices use a dual communication system to provide tracking data in real time over the mobile phone system as well as through a network of satellites.

Crucially, they also send an alert if an eagle displays unusual flying behaviour or has died, so that teams monitoring the birds can mount a rapid response.

Research in 2017 found that around a third of young golden eagles tracked by satellite over a 12-year period had disappeared in suspicious circumstances.

Dr Pete Mayhew, the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s director of nature and climate change, said he hoped the new tags, which could be rolled out to more birds in the coming years, could act as a deterrent against wildlife crime and help secure convictions if it occurs.

He said: “If a bird falls out of the sky, stops moving or is lying on its back, the tag would pick up on that unnatural behaviour and we could respond to that.”