Tracking Scotland's rare red kites

The SNH red kite tracking project was launched on the 23rd June

By Selena Masson

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Can a new red kite tracking project help uncover whether Scotland's red kites are really suffering from persecution?

Scottish keepers, who often have accusations of raptor persecution levelled against them, hope that a new Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) project launched on 23 June to track red kites in Scotland with satellites will reveal the true reasons why the population is so low in the north of the country.

Speaking in support of the £10,000 Eyes to the Skies project, Scottish environment secretary Richard Lochhead argued that initiatives such as this help raise awareness of the persecution of raptors. “A criminal minority is putting this precious resource at risk and unfairly tarnishing the reputations of those working in our countryside within the law,” he said.

In what is thought to be one of the first occasions satellite tracking has been used as a wildlife crime deterrent, the electronic tags will be fitted to a total of 15 red kites in the Black Isle area north of Inverness. The satellite tagging is part of a larger RSPB project to provide a red kite viewing facility and education centre near Dingwall, in Ross-shire.

According to SNH, the spread of the red kite in north Scotland is slower than in other areas where it has been reintroduced. This is believed to be, in part, due to poisoning. SNH’s Ron Macdonald confirmed: “The red kite is one of the five species that comprise national wildlife crime priorities. This technology now gives us the chance to locate dead or injured birds rapidly and this continuous collection of data on the birds’ movements will be a barrier to the improper use of poison baits and the direct persecution of red kites.”

The rest of this article appears in 2nd July issue of Shooting Times.