![\"\"](\"https:\/\/raptorpersecutionuk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/squeagle-low-res-sat-tag-movements-map.jpg\")
<\/a>Low resolution map showing Squeagle\u2019s satellite tracking data from Feb \u2013 May 2026. Image from Restoring Upland Nature (RUN)<\/p>\n
After her release, Squeagle travelled through parts of northern England, including Northumberland, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. A photograph taken in Northumberland on Monday, 4 May, 2026, showed significant damage to her wing feathers.<\/p>\n
On Monday, 1 June, 2026, gamekeepers on an estate in the Lammermuirs became concerned after noticing the bird behaving unusually and contacted RUN. Squeagle was collected and taken to the Scottish SPCA\u2019s National Wildlife Rescue Centre at Fishcross for assessment.<\/p>\n Scans and treatment revealed she had been shot and had at least 17 shotgun pellets lodged in her body and wings. Experts believe the injuries were not recent, as the wounds had already healed.<\/p>\n Detective Sergeant David Lynn, National Wildlife Crime Coordinator said: <\/p>\n \u201cThis was a serious attack on a protected bird of prey which I utterly condemn. Thanks to the quick actions of those who reported concerns, the golden eagle was able to receive specialist treatment and has since been returned to the wild. We are working with partners across Scotland and northern England to establish where and when she was shot.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing treatment by veterinary specialists at the Scottish SPCA, Squeagle was released back into the wild on Saturday, 6 June, 2026. Her condition will continue to be monitored through observations and detailed analysis of satellite tracking.<\/p>\n \u201cEnquiries remain ongoing, and we are working alongside our colleagues in Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria and North Yorkshire, supported by the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit to establish who was responsible\u201c.<\/p>\n Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland, quoting incident number 1361 of 5 June 2026.<\/p>\n ENDS<\/p>\n My commentary:<\/p>\n First of all, plaudits to all those involved with the recovery of this injured eagle and her subsequent release back to the wild \u2013 the gamekeepers who found her and chose to raise the alarm instead of their guns, RUN staff for a quick response and rescue, and the SSPCA staff who provided urgent and expert veterinary care and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n Plaudits also to Police Scotland for a fairly fast and detailed press release.<\/p>\n What struck me most about this latest persecution incident is that this Golden Eagle had survived for four-years in the relatively persecution-free Uists, but within three months of being translocated and released in south Scotland, and venturing into northern England, someone had shot her, presumably with the intention of killing her.<\/p>\n This happened just a few short months after another young translocated Golden Eagle, \u2018Hamlet\u2019, was found with shotgun injuries on a grouse moor in the Scottish Borders in January this year (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n These crimes, along with the shooting of Golden Eagle Merrick in the Moorfoot Hills in 2023 (here<\/a>), the suspicious disappearances of Golden Eagles Tarras and Wren in the Langholm area in 2025 (here<\/a>), the suspicious disappearance of a White-tailed Eagle in the Moorfoot Hills in 2025 (here<\/a>), and the suspicious disappearance of White-tailed Eagle G834 in the North York Moors National Park in 2026 (here<\/a>) are a stark reminder of the difficulties faced by those trying to re-establish eagle populations in the region, against a residual Victorian culture of zero tolerance for raptors on large areas of land that is managed for gamebird shooting.<\/p>\n The police and others are undertaking a detailed analysis of Squeagle\u2019s satellite tracking data to try and pinpoint the location where she was shot, which looks likely to have been somewhere in northern England. I don\u2019t doubt that they\u2019ll be able to find it, given the quality and accuracy of the tag data available to them, but even if they can determine the location, it won\u2019t result in a prosecution \/ conviction, or indeed any sanction, because unlike in Scotland, General Licence restrictions and\/or grouse shoot licence revocations are not available in England.<\/p>\n So for those who continue to target these eagles, and other raptors, especially Hen Harriers<\/a>, the risk of getting caught is almost negligible so in their minds it\u2019s still worth committing the offence.<\/p>\n The RSPB and some others will argue that gamebird licensing is the way ahead, so that licences can be revoked where offences have been detected, providing at least some sort of sanction against those who continue to think the law doesn\u2019t apply to them. There\u2019s some merit in that argument, although personally I see licensing as only a step in the right direction and we\u2019re still to see any licence revocations in Scotland, despite multiple raptor persecution offences taking place since licensing was introduced<\/a> two years ago.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to see the Westminster Government put up funding to establish a national, multi-agency response unit to investigate raptor persecution crimes, and all other crimes that are listed as National Wildlife Crime priorities. It\u2019s all very well putting up \u00a31 million to explore the re-establishment of Golden Eagles in northern England (see here<\/a>), but without also investing in wildlife crime enforcement capabilities, many eagles that are translocated are simply going to be shot, or trapped, or poisoned, or bludgeoned to death, with zero consequences for the offenders, just as they have been for the last 70+ years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Press release from Police Scotland (26 June 2026), followed by my commentary: POLICE APPEAL AFTER SQUEAGLE THE GOLDEN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-661582","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\/661582","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=661582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Squeagle photographed in Northumberland on 4 May 2026 with extensive feather damage (photo via RUN)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Squeagle being released in south Scotland February 2026 after translocation from the Western Isles (photo by John Wright)<\/p>\n