{"id":274271,"date":"2025-11-20T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274271\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T21:04:09","slug":"satellite-tagged-hen-harrier-circe-disappears-in-suspicious-circumstances-in-moorfoot-hills-south-scotland-raptor-persecution-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/274271\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite-tagged Hen Harrier \u2018Circe\u2019 disappears in suspicious circumstances in Moorfoot Hills, south Scotland \u2013 Raptor Persecution UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Press release from Hen Harrier Action<\/a> (20th November 2025)<\/p>\n

HEN HARRIER ACTION APPEALS FOR INFORMATION AS ANOTHER RARE HEN HARRIER SUSPECTED TO HAVE BEEN ILLEGALLY KILLED IN SCOTLAND<\/p>\n

A satellite tagged Hen Harrier,\u00a0\u2018Circe\u2019, suddenly disappeared in the Moorfoot Hills, south of Edinburgh<\/p>\n

As numerous recent incidents have shown, satellite tagged Hen Harriers that disappear in suspicious circumstances are highly likely to have been illegally killed<\/p>\n

Hen Harrier Action are appealing for information which could help with the investigation<\/p>\n

Thanks to donations from supporters in 2025, Hen Harrier Action funded the purchase of\u00a0four satellite tags\u00a0to monitor the movements of Hen Harriers in the UK.<\/p>\n

One of the tags was fitted by\u00a0RSPB\u00a0staff to a juvenile female Hen Harrier named\u00a0Circe\u00a0before she fledged from her nest on\u00a0Tarras Valley Nature Reserve\u00a0\u2013 a community-led rewilding project in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hen Harrier \u2018Circe\u2019 being fitted with a satellite tag in 2025<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to her disappearance\u00a0Circe\u00a0ranged across the Moorfoot Hills, south of Edinburgh. Her tag data shows that the tag was regularly transmitting but then sudden stopped with no sign of tag malfunction. The disappearance was reported to the\u00a0National Wildlife Crime Unit\u00a0and the area was searched but no body or tag has been found. Sudden stops without the tag being found are a huge concern, often indicating that the bird has been illegally killed.<\/p>\n

Circe\u2019s last transmission was on Tuesday 14th\u00a0October at 2.07pm, not far from the well-known standing stones at Greenfieldknowe and the hiking trails around Whiteside Edge and Loncote Hill. She was less than four months old.<\/p>\n

Though a legally protected species, Hen Harriers are one of the UK\u2019s scarcest and most persecuted birds of prey in the UK. Dozens are satellite tagged each year to monitor their movements and wellbeing with the support of charities like the RSPB and local raptor groups. But despite being heavily protected in law for decades, many go missing each year due to suspected and confirmed illegal killing. In an effort to locate the body of\u00a0Circe\u00a0the charity has issued an appeal for information.<\/p>\n

Hen Harrier Action\u00a0trustee\u00a0Adrian Rowe\u00a0said \u201cWe are devastated by the loss. Circe was a healthy, thriving Hen Harrier and we had high hopes that she would go on to find a mate and raise a family. We know that the area is a popular walking route, and we are appealing for anyone who might have seen anything suspicious that Tuesday afternoon, or come across a dead bird of prey in the area, to get in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have information that could help, please call the RSPB\u2019s Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101, or the Wildlife Crime team at Police Scotland on 101.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

Well done to Hen Harrier Action for issuing a press release.<\/p>\n

Hen Harrier Action has published the coordinates of Circe\u2019s tag\u2019s last known transmission, which according to Andy Wightman\u2019s excellent website, Who Owns Scotland<\/a>, appears to have come from the Portmore Estate, although no detail is provided about the tag\u2019s transmission cycle or the accuracy of the final fix.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Red line = boundary of Portmore Estate. Orange X indicates last known transmission from Circe\u2019s satellite tag.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that Circe was killed on the Portmore Estate. I\u2019m not aware of any previously reported illegal persecution incidents on this estate.<\/p>\n

However, the wider Moorfoot Hills area is well-known as a hotbed of illegal raptor persecution, with many confirmed incidents of poisoning, shooting, illegal traps and \u2018disappearing\u2019 satellite-tagged raptors over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Moorfoot Hills is where Golden Eagle \u2018Merrick<\/a>\u2018 was killed over two years ago, whilst she was asleep in a tree. Police Scotland believe she was shot and then her corpse was removed and her satellite tag destroyed in an attempt to hide the evidence.<\/p>\n

A long-overdue decision is expected <\/a>from NatureScot about whether a General Licence restriction will be imposed in relation to that appalling crime. <\/p>\n

Other \u2018missing\u2019 satellite-tagged raptors in south Scotland at the moment include two Golden Eagles that vanished at the end of August (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Press release from Hen Harrier Action (20th November 2025) HEN HARRIER ACTION APPEALS FOR INFORMATION AS ANOTHER RARE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-274271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}