Wildlife Crime in Scotland 2022

Raptor persecution

The persecution of raptors, or birds of prey, is the most high-profile type of wildlife crime in Scotland and it can have a serious impact on the populations of some raptor species at local, regional or (if carried out more widely) national level.

Recorded crimes

Figure 21: There were a total of 101 bird of prey offences recorded in the last 5 years, with 24 occurring in 2021-22.

Recorded Bird of prey offences 2017-18 to 2021-22

Figure 21 shows that raptor persecution offences increased from 11 in 2020-21 to 24 in 2021-22. Of the offences in 2021-22, 15 out of 24 were related to offences targeting peregrine falcons, reported in the Lothians & Borders police division and these reflect the impact of Operation Tantallon which targeted offences against peregrine falcons (and also resulted in other crimes recorded as CITES offences, discussed earlier in this report).

For the 101 offences over the last 5 years, the most targeted species were buzzard (23 offences), peregrine falcon (20 offences) and red kite (15 offences). In some cases the offence included multiple species or the species was unknown. Offences covered a range of crime type including poisoning (26 offences), shooting (24 offences), trapping (12 offences), disturbance (7 offences) and egg theft (5 offences).

Further detail: on raptor offences by target species, police division, type of offence and time of year is included in tables 32 to 34 of the Tables supporting document.