Police forces across the United Kingdom have launched investigations following the suspicious disappearance of three rare white-tailed eagles, dealing a significant blow to the successful project to reintroduce the majestic birds to British skies.
A Devastating Blow for Conservation
One of the missing birds is a chick that fledged in Sussex earlier this year, representing one of the first white-tailed eagles to fledge in England for hundreds of years. Its disappearance, alongside two others in Wales and Scotland, has devastated the conservationists leading the reintroduction effort. The project, a collaboration between the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England, has seen 45 birds released since 2019, with several breeding pairs forming and six wild chicks born since the 1780s.
Tim Mackrill from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation expressed profound shock. "It was devastating to find the stolen and dumped tags, particularly for the chick in Sussex who fledged this summer and had only just begun its life," he said. "So many people had shared the joy of seeing these birds breed again after hundreds of years."
Evidence Points to Deliberate Acts
The disappearances are considered suspicious because the satellite trackers fitted to the eagles were deliberately interfered with. In two cases, the tags had been cut off with a sharp instrument and dumped near the birds' last known locations. The third eagle's tag simply stopped transmitting on 8 November in the Moorfoot Hills south of Edinburgh, with no further sightings.
Campaigners note that white-tailed eagles, Britain's largest bird of prey, are sometimes illegally killed because they are perceived as a threat to game birds like pheasants and partridges. The species was originally driven to extinction in Britain in the early 20th century through shooting and poisoning.
Ruth Tingay of Raptor Persecution UK stated: "There’s no doubt whatsoever that at least two of these eagles were the victims of illegal persecution, given the clear evidence that their satellite tags had been cut off."
Nationwide Police Appeals for Information
Three separate police forces, supported by the National Wildlife Crime Unit, are investigating. Sussex Police are seeking information after a tag was recovered from the River Rother, near Petersfield, Hampshire, on 26 September. They want to hear from anyone near Harting Down and Petersfield on the evening of 20 September.
In Wales, Dyfed-Powys Police are investigating after a tag was found near Gwgia Reservoir, Tregynon, on 13 September. They appeal to anyone near the reservoir between 11am and 1pm, or on land near Bryn y Fawnog between noon and 3pm that day.
Police Scotland are investigating the disappearance of the eagle near Edinburgh.
Steve Egerton-Read, Forestry England's white-tailed eagle project officer, made a public plea: "We are returning this lost species to the English landscape... We are asking the public to show this support again by encouraging anyone who has information to come forward." Disturbing these protected birds or their nests is a criminal offence.
