NPWS publishes review of incidents impacting birds of prey 2007-2019
- 338 Incidents reported in 13 years
The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) has today (Wednesday 21st October) published a review of incidents that have been recorded to impact native Irish birds of prey between 2007 and 2019.
A total of 338 incidents were confirmed and recorded on the RAPTOR database during this period. A wide range of causes are listed, including poisoning, persecution, fence, road and turbine collisions. Some of the incidents would have had multiple issues (e.g. some birds of prey were both shot and poisoned), while a number of incidents would have been comprised of multiple birds (e.g. more than one individual killed by a poisoned bait incident). 294 incidents involved birds of prey, with a total of 301 individual birds of prey impacted. All regularly breeding native Irish raptor species were confirmed to have suffered some form of poisoning, persecution or other direct anthropogenic non-habitat related cause of injury or mortality.
The birds of prey recorded as most frequently impacted were Common Buzzard (100 casualties), Red Kite (n=46), Barn Owl (n=43), Peregrine Falcon (n=36), White-tailed Sea Eagle (n=18), Hen Harrier (n=17), Sparrowhawk (n=16), Kestrel (n=11), Long-Eared Owl (n=8), Golden Eagle (n-2) Merlin (n=1) and Short-Eared Owl (n=1).
This review has been made possible by experts from the NPWS, the Veterinary Laboratory Service and State Laboratory co-operating on an investigative process known as the RAPTOR protocol. RAPTOR is an acronym for ‘Recording and Addressing Persecution and Threats to Our Raptors’. The RAPTOR protocol entails a significant amount of effort between the three Government Departments - from collecting and handling carcasses, injured birds and evidence; to x-rays, Post-Mortem examinations, DNA sampling, toxicological testing and follow-up investigations; data analysis, interpretation and reporting.
The report’s author and coordinator of RAPTOR between 2013 and 2019, Dr. Barry O’Donoghue stated: “Birds of Prey are magnificent creatures in their own right and speak to something deep within us about a wild Ireland. They are indicators of the health of our ecosystems and countryside, whether a Barn Owl hunting a hay meadow at night or a Hen Harrier gliding across a moorland. The help of the public has been central in bringing these incidents to light and for highlighting the support that our native birds of prey need”.
Incidents have been recorded in every county of Ireland. In terms of incidents involving illegal acts or misuse of poisons, poison incidents accounted for 71.5% of such cases, while shootings accounted for 28% and trapping/mutilation accounted for 0.5% of such cases. There are notable clusters of incidents, and particular risk periods, namely springtime for illegal/misuse of poison incidents and late summer/autumn and winter for shooting incidents.
In addition, there was 57 road collision incidents, 6 wind turbine strike incidents, 3 ‘traumatic death’ incidents, 2 disturbance incidents, 2 fence collision incidents and 1 powerline collision incident.
As well as assisting directly with individual wildlife crime investigations, the RAPTOR protocol underpins the NPWS RAPTOR database, providing important information on the species affected, the modus operandi, timing and location of such incidents. The report provides important background information to assist targeting illegal activity through enforcement and education and in turn combat human-related raptor injury and mortality. The information garnered from recording and analysing incidents of disturbance, road, turbine or fence collisions can help inform forward planning on such matters.
Commenting on the review, Minister of State Malcolm Noonan said: “These incidents, particularly the deliberate persecution of our native raptors are an abhorrence to us all and should be condemned. The incident involving the poisoning of 23 Buzzards in West Cork in early 2020 was an eye opener for many, but this comprehensive report shows that poisoning and persecution incidents are happening annually. I thank the work of officials in my Department and in the State Lab, Regional Veterinary Labs and An Garda Síochána for their professionalism and dedication in investigating these incidents over the past 13 years. The intelligence gathered by those coordinating RAPTOR will serve very usefully to inform approaches to tackling these incidents, including by the new Wildlife Crime Unit that will be established within NPWS.”