{"id":721204,"date":"2026-07-31T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:13:13","slug":"rat-poison-detected-in-five-dead-white-tailed-eagles-in-dorset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721204\/","title":{"rendered":"Rat poison detected in five dead white-tailed eagles in Dorset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rat poison was detected in five white-tailed eagles found dead in Dorset, Natural England has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It follows an investigation into 10 cases relating to the suspected poisoning of the bird species in England since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-hampshire-49433490\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the start of a reintroduction project on the Isle of Wight in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Natural England said while the concentrations had not been high enough to be identified as the primary cause of death, experts had concluded it was likely to have contributed to other factors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A spokesperson said the findings &#8220;highlight the importance of responsible pesticide use and continued vigilance to reduce risks to wildlife&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Six of the investigated cases &#8211; five deaths and one illness &#8211; occurred within Dorset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In January 2022, there was one unspecified death, with electrocutions then recorded in November 2024 and March 2026, starvation in May 2024, and trauma in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brodifacoum, a second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide, was detected in all death cases at levels above those expected from normal background exposure, Natural England said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It said the results had warranted a further investigation into the source, which suggested brodifacoum might not have been used in accordance with legal requirements designed to protect wildlife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rat poison was detected in five white-tailed eagles found dead in Dorset, Natural England has said. It follows&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-721204","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\/721204","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=721204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}