The Hour

RSPB Scotland’s campaign for greater safety on Scotland’s birds of prey has received huge public support with over 22,000 people signing the petition which has been handed to the Scottish Government for consideration.

The charity launched the campaign after becoming increasingly worried that not enough was being done to control wildlife crime.

In the last decade, around 300 birds of prey have been illegally poisoned and another 100 have been killed by nest destruction, shooting or trapping.

Stewart Robertson from the Loch Lomond Bird of Prey Centre explained: “Despite being protected by law, wildlife crime still goes on.

“The reason behind the petition is that, the public in general, want to see more action been taken and make the penalty a bit more severe.”

Throughout Scotland, there are localised hotspots where the number of poisioning incidents is higher - a factor Stewart believes has to be acknowledged by the Government in order to tackle the problem.

“It tends to be Aberdeenshire, Tayside, South Lanarkshire and around about those areas and tends to be things like grouse shooting activities,” he said.

“It is public awareness. If people think there is something unlawful going on, they can contact the authorities.”

Beautiful birds like the golden eagle are now classified as rare, a statistic RSPB Scotland and the Loch Lomond Birds of Prey Centre hope awareness and education can help reverse.

“The whole idea is that if we can educate people, the public and kids in particular, and try and get them interested in wildlife and birds then hopefully later on in life they will be able to do something about it because they will have an appreciation of it.”

For more information, visit Loch Lomond’s Birds of Prey Centre website or RSPB Scotland.