Back to HOMEPAGE Crofters claim that lamb deaths conflict
with results of eagle study
Reintroduced to Scotland more than 30 years ago, sea eagles have been
breeding in Wester Ross for ten years
Mike Wade
Columnist: The Times
Filed 04Nov09
©Mike Wade
This article was originally published in The Times on 3rd November 2009.
It is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author and of the newspaper.
A war of words between crofters and conservationists has broken out in the remote countryside of Wester Ross over the future of the sea eagle, Britain’s largest bird of prey. At issue is the fraught question of whether the eagles, with their eight feet wingspan, have been seizing young lambs and depriving the crofters of their livelihood.
Government-backed researchers have carried out a survey which is believed to conclude that no such attacks have taken place. Crofters on the Gairloch peninsula, however, are ready to reject the report, and even to suggest its conclusions have been fixed.
So high are feelings running that rumours were circulating in crofting circles yesterday that the scientists had deliberately relocated the birds during the research period to prevent them being unmasked as a threat to farm animals. The claims were rejected with a mixture of incredulity, hilarity, and outrage by conservation groups.
At issue is a study by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), produced in response to crofters’ concerns, after claims last summer that at least 200 lambs had been taken from the peninsula by sea eagles. Some farmers said that they had lost a quarter of their lambs, and their livelihoods were being ruined.
In January scientists radio-tagged 60 lambs to monitor their fate. They found that all but three survived the summer. Post mortem examinations revealed, however, that the three that died did so without the intervention of birds of prey.
If the sea eagle appeared to emerge without a stain on its character from the research, locals were quick to cry foul. Willie Fraser, who has a croft near Gairloch, said that the research proved nothing. He claimed that locals and scientists alike had been surprised by the fact that very few eagles had been seen during the six-month research project; but in mid-August, as soon as the study was completed and the professional naturalists had withdrawn, the eagles had returned to the skies over Wester Ross — and lambs began to go missing again.
Mr Fraser said that he was at a loss to explain the behaviour of the birds, though he ruled nothing out. Tales abound on the peninsula that ornithologists set up feeding stations during the breeding season to dissuade the eagles from taking lambs; others that the adult birds were “birdnapped” — removed from the Gairloch area for the summer months.
“People are very suspicious of what has been happening,” said Mr Fraser, chairman of the Gairloch and Poolewe branch of the Crofting Foundation. “Why would the birds just disappear this summer? Ever since mid-August, when the research stopped, lambs have been disappearing again.”
Sea eagles were reintroduced to Scotland more than 30 years ago, and began nesting in Wester Ross at least a decade ago. Crofters remain indignant that the birds have been reintroduced without consultation with local farmers.
Ironically, the six-month study had been designed to settle the issue of whether the birds were a risk to livelihoods. It was carried out by Fera — a government-funded agency — in association with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Those involved with the project greeted the crofters' renewed claims with disbelief.
“To suggest that we would collude with sabotaging our scientific research is patently absurd,” a spokesman for the RSPB said. “The notion we would undermine a very significant research project is just ludicrous.”
Others questioned the veracity of the crofters’ statistics. There are only four pairs of sea eagles in the whole of Wester Ross. To claim that they had taken 200 last summer was equivalent to each bird carrying off 25 lambs from Gairloch alone A spokesman for SNH rejected these statistics. “Research on Mull suggested that the predominant part of sea eagles’ diet is gulls and fulmar, with the very occasional lamb,” he said.
Jamie McGrigor, the Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, sympathised with the crofters. “These birds are still classified as being reintroduced,” he said “If they prey on lambs, the crofters can do nothing about it, because the birds are protected by law. On Mull, crofters have been paid compensation for lamb losses to eagles.”
Bill Cameron, a Gairloch crofter, said he could not explain why sea eagles had stopped taking local lambs this summer. “Lambs have been taken in the past, the people looking after the sea eagles accept that,” said Mr. Cameron. “We haven’t lost a single lamb this year; that’s a good thing.
Behind the story
The reason that crofters and conservationists fall out over birds of prey is simple: one community is trying to make a living, the other is conducting an ornithological experiment (Magnus Linklater writes). Neither of these aims is mutually exclusive, provided that everyone is fully informed about what is happening. The trouble is that conservation bodies are bad communicators, and tend to place the interests of human beings behind those of wildlife.
Consultations are carried out, of course, but for some reason the objections from crofters and farmers seem always to come second to the interests of the conservationists. Beavers, sea eagles, kites and other species are introduced, however strong local opposition may be, and when it comes to testing whether they are causing any damage, the research is almost invariably carried out by — the conservationists. They therefore become judge and jury.
In these situations, both sides exaggerate to make their case. Conservationists argue that their birds of prey are mild-mannered creatures, which cause no harm to farm animals. Crofters claim that eagles have been carrying off hundreds of their precious lambs. The truth probably lies somewhere in between but, because the conservation bodies are paid for by us, the taxpayer, the onus is on them to sit down and talk to those whose entire livelihood depends on farming.
As food prices spiral and the threat of climate change grows, some of the more exotic conservation aims may have to give way to the need to produce more food. Otherwise it could be human beings rather than birds that will become the endangered species.
©Mike Wade
Further reading recommended by Land-Care
Linklater, Magnus (2008). Britain's got talon: we must defy the sea-eagle lovers.
Reintroducing birds of prey into the wild merely gives environmentalists a passing thrill.
See HOMEPAGE, filed 28Sep08, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
Macleod, Kirsty (2006). The introduction of sea eagles to the coasts of Scotland.
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, filed 05Nov06, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
Macleod, Kirsty (2005). Beavers and SNH
See ENVIRONMENT Homepage, filed 12Mar05, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
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