Scarce sea eagle identified useless in Aberdeenshire experienced been poisoned

A rare eagle which was identified useless in Aberdeenshire experienced been poisoned, law enforcement have confirmed.

Officers mentioned they are dealing with the death of the white-tailed sea eagle as suspicious.

Its corpse was recovered from Donside, Aberdeenshire, in April, and a article-mortem assessment has now recognized it died from pesticide poisoning.

The raptors had been reintroduced into Scotland in the 1970s following turning into extinct in the United kingdom in the early 1900s.

There are now above 150 breeding pairs in Scotland.

Insp Sheila McDerment, of Police Scotland, reported: “As properly as getting illegal, poisoning is a cruel way to eliminate a bird.

“It also places the life of other creatures and plants at hazard and impacts negatively on our natural environment.

“This incident is specially upsetting since these exceptional and beautiful birds had been reintroduced to Scotland right after getting extinct all over the British isles.”

She appealed to anyone with details to contact the police.

Ian Thomson, of RSPB Scotland, explained it was “appalling news” that the bird experienced been illegally poisoned.

He additional: “This criminal offense would under no circumstances have occur to light experienced the hen not been fitted with a satellite tag.

“The killing of this youthful eagle can be included to a litany of raptor persecution incidents in new several years, together with former poisonings and multiple disappearances of equally-tagged birds of prey.

“Poisoning is vicious and indiscriminate.”

The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association’s chairman, Alex Hogg, stated he condemned the bird’s poisoning “wholeheartedly”.

He ongoing: “In 2010, there had been 32 wildlife poisonings in Scotland. That was unacceptable.

“The SGA committed to Scottish authorities that we would do all we could to address the challenge within our own business.

“We sent on that guarantee. Today, luckily, these conditions are now extremely uncommon in this place.

“We acknowledge sea eagles can pose difficulties in land administration a thing which is effectively documented, but this is absolutely the incorrect way to address a conflict.”