RED KITE PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND

14/05/2007 00:00:00 Illegal persecution and poisoning of red kites on some Scottish sporting estates, particularly in the North, is holding back an otherwise successful UK reintroduction programme. The Red kite, once common all over the UK, was reduced to just 45 pairs in Wales before being reintroduced to former strongholds in England and Scotland since the late 1980s. The disparity between the 2 original reintroduction regions in the Chilterns and north Scotland shows that red kites still face significant challenges. The UK reintroduction programme began in 1989 with two separate projects: RSPB Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage focusing on the Black Isle, North Scotland, and the RSPB working with Natural England (formerly English Nature) and the Southern England Kite Group.

By 1993, each of the 2 regions had seen the release of 93 imported birds. This year the 41 pairs in the North of Scotland population produced 82 young. The Chilterns’ population, however, is now so widespread that it is no longer practical to monitor them accurately each year. The 2006 estimate is more than 320 pairs – eight times that of the Black Isle.

So far, RSPB Scotland’s investigations unit has recorded 5 confirmed cases of red kite poisoning this year, all of them in the Highlands. 3 dead kites were found in a single area of Ross-shire, and the other 2 on separate estates in Strathnairn. In Stirling and Dumfries and Galloway, by contrast, there have been no confirmed poisoning incidents for 2 years. However by its very nature, this kind of crime is difficult to detect, and in the Highlands at least, illegal persecution must be considered to be one of the main factors for the vast shortfall compared with the Chilterns.

Duncan Orr Ewing, head of species and Land Management at RSPB Scotland said: ‘The increased number of breeding pairs of red kites that we’ve seen this year is great news. The UK has become a very successful outpost for the red kite in Europe. But it’s saddening that when a species clearly is thriving after reintroduction, it is held back by the acts of humans in one part of the country. In 2001 we analysed the causes of death of red kites in North Scotland, and found that 37% of those killed (23 out of 60) had been poisoned since 1989.’