Scotland’s largest bird of prey, the White-Tailed Eagles, will once again be a common sight, following their reintroduction in 1975. With a wingspan of over two metres, the ‘sea eagles’ as they are also known, were hunted to extinction over a century ago. But now, their numbers are growing
“The last eagle was shot in Shetland in 1918,” says Dave Sexton who monitors the birds for the RSPB Scotland, “their disappearance was entirely due to human persecution. Now we have more than 200 breeding pairs. They were reintroduced onto the Isle of Rum and have continued to thrive from there; they’re a common sight now along the west coast around Mull for example and there’s a pair in the Cairngorms now too. My dream would be to one day see them back in Shetland, they’ve touched base there but they’re not there permanently as of yet.”
The reintroduction of the White-Tailed Eagles however has been a contentious issue, with claims earlier this month that they are snatching the foals of Shetland ponies in South Uist. An investigation from Nature Scot found that the bones from nearby nests came from fish, rabbits, and geese. Farming unions however claim that many of their members have seen their lambs taken by the eagles, and are calling for more to be done.
While the debate rages on in Scotland, other parts of the UK are also discussing the reintroduction of the birds from Scotland. Fraser Cormack, warden at the Loch Garten Nature Reserve in Cairngorms is helping with a project to reestablish a population of White-Tailed Eagles on the Isle of White.
Conservationists hail the success of the birds, saying that it shows how nature can thrive, even during a changing climate. But as with many other types of animals, including wild cats and wolves, their reintroduction is likely to spark debate.
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