SCOTLAND’S grouse shooting estates are outdated, cruel, wasteful and “underpinned by relentless wildlife crime” the campaigner Chris Packham has claimed.
The BBC Springwatch presenter was speaking after Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), who represent landowners, accused him of betraying conservationism.
The row follows news on Monday that two Golden Eagles had vanished in “suspicious circumstances” on the same grouse moor in Perthshire.
The young raptors, named Adam and Charlie, were last seen in April on the Auchnafree estate in Strathbraan.
The eagles’ satellite tags, which had been working perfectly well, suddenly and inexplicably stopped within hours of each other.
A recent Scotish Government report revealed that of 131 young eagles tagged between 2004 and 2016, 41 (31%) have “disappeared” under “suspicious circumstances significantly connected with contemporaneous records of illegal persecution.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Jeremy Vine show, Packham said Adam came to rest and moved across the ground to a vehicle turning circle, where it remained for six minutes before the tag stopped transmitting.
He said this was “highly unusual”.
In his chat with Vine, Packham also referred to grouse moors as “industrialised landscapes” where “there’s not much else living except grouse”.
David Johnstone, chairman of SLE accused the campaigner of betraying the efforts of “conservationists who take pride in the scientific rigour of their work.”
He said: “To suggest that ‘not much else’ lives on grouse moors except grouse is a ridiculous accusation which he repeats ad nauseum in his pursuit of banning grouse shooting.
“Well established scientific research by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust demonstrates that while managed grouse moors will have less predatory species such as foxes, crows and stoats, this results in significantly higher numbers and diversity of rare birds such as curlew, lapwing, golden plover, ring ouzel, black grouse than on moorland where those predators are not controlled.”
Johnson added: “Chris Packham is quick to accuse grouse moors of denying the reality of wildlife crime. This is not true. We condemn such behaviour out of hand but Scotland has made huge strides in taking instances of wildlife crime to their lowest ever levels. We should seek to build on that rather than smear and accuse people of crime.”
Packham accused the shooting estate spokesman of “pathetic propaganda” and said it was “aimed at distracting people from the real issue, yet more dead Golden Eagles”
He added: “And the ‘science’ they quote is as far from independent as you could get. Of course if you remove all the predators you will have more prey - Scotland is overrun with deer because we have no wolves or lynx - but that is not a healthy, balanced sustainable ecology.
“It’s an industrial landscape managed to benefit one species which is shot for fun.
“Burned, drained, carved up with tracks, denuded of biodiversity, driven grouse moors are a disgrace to Scotland. And the bitter cherry on the stale cake, the unequivocal fact that this outdated, cruel and wasteful industry is underpinned by relentless wildlife crime”.
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