{"id":310784,"date":"2025-12-11T21:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310784\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T21:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:49:11","slug":"the-charity-hen-harrier-action-launches-xmas-fundraiser-to-buy-satellite-tags-raptor-persecution-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310784\/","title":{"rendered":"The charity Hen Harrier Action launches Xmas fundraiser to buy satellite tags \u2013 Raptor Persecution UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The charity Hen Harrier Action<\/a> has launched its annual Xmas fundraising appeal, this year with a target of \u00a315K to purchase five satellite tags to be fitted to Hen Harrier chicks in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you\u2019ll know, over the last couple of decades, raptor satellite-tagging in the UK has shone a massive spotlight on the widespread scale of the illegal killing of a number of raptor species, especially Hen Harriers and Golden Eagles. <\/p>\n

Scientists have been able to analyse the tag data and have demonstrated a clear and unequivocal link between illegal raptor persecution and grouse moor management (e.g. see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Scotland this has led directly to a change in Government policy, with the recent introduction of a grouse moor licensing scheme, whereby licences for shooting Red Grouse can be suspended\/revoked if evidence of raptor persecution (and some other wildlife crimes) is found on a grouse shooting estate.<\/p>\n

It has also led to a change in tactics by some of those motivated to kill raptors, who are now apparently choosing to target un-tagged raptors because they want to avoid the media attention and scrutiny that follows the illegal killing or \u2018disappearance\u2019 of a tagged bird (e.g. see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But fitting a satellite tag doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that that raptor won\u2019t be targeted. There are plenty of examples<\/a> of tagged birds still being targeted, either because those doing the killing are too stupid to understand what a tag\u2019s data can reveal, or more likely, there are rarely any direct consequences for those who commit these crimes so there\u2019s no incentive for them to stop.<\/p>\n

To my mind, the main benefit of continuing to fit satellite tags to Hen Harriers, apart from the obvious research benefits of better understanding this species\u2019 ecology and how it uses the landscape, is that it allows us to document the scale of the ongoing criminality (that would otherwise be hidden and thus would be easily deniable by the grouse shooting industry) and to use those data to put pressure on Governments to address the problem.<\/p>\n

As in previous years, any tags purchased by Hen Harrier Action will be fitted by licensed experts from the RSPB who will also monitor and manage the data, and alert the police \/ Hen Harrier Taskforce if suspicious tag activity is detected.<\/p>\n

It also means that Hen Harrier Action will publicise any suspicious disappearances \/ confirmed illegal killings, without compromising any police investigation, of course, but also without sitting on the data for months, sometimes years, as we\u2019ve seen all too often<\/a> with tags fitted by Natural England.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re able to contribute to Hen Harrier Action\u2019s Xmas fundraiser, please visit their fundraising site here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The charity Hen Harrier Action has launched its annual Xmas fundraising appeal, this year with a target of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-310784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310784","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=310784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}