Wildlife crime in Scotland: annual report 2021

4. Wildlife crime priority areas

Wildlife crime priorities are set at UK level by the Wildlife Crime Tasking and Co-ordinating Group. The group's membership includes the Police, the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The priorities remained unchanged in 2020-21:

• Badger persecution;
• Bat persecution;
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES);
• Freshwater pearl mussels;
• Poaching (including deer poaching, hare coursing, fish poaching);
• Raptor persecution.

Priority groups on poaching and coursing, and freshwater pearl mussel crime, continue to operate in Scotland, as well as the PAW Scotland Raptor Group (formerly the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group).

The following sections provide more detail on each of these priority areas, along with the relevant data. The additional sections from the 2014 report on the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and Trapping and Snaring continue to be included.

NatureScot have provided a 'Health of Species' appraisal in Appendix 4, for those priority species that fall within NatureScots remit: badger, bats, freshwater pearl mussels, deer, brown hare and key raptors. This appraisal is intended to give an overview of current population trends, factors affecting the health of the species and the relative impact of wildlife crime on the conservation status and is in response to an Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee request for this contextual information.

Police Scotland disaggregated data

The data shown in Figure 1, table 15 and table 16 has been presented by Police Scotland. Data in Table 1 is sourced from the Scottish Government Recorded Crime figures and care should be taken in comparing those figures with the disaggregated figures provided in this section.

Table 15: Police Scotland offence data from 2016-17 to 2020-21

Type of crime	Number of offences
	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Badger persecution	6	15	16	11	14
Bat persecution	0	1	0	4	8
CITES	6	2	1	0	1
Freshwater pearl mussels	2	1	1	2	0
Poaching and coursing	115	127	69	109	212
Raptor persecution	11	24	17	25	11
Not related to Priority Area	91	63	59	45	59
No crime recorded	0	2	0	0	0
Total	231	235	163	196	305
Additional breakdowns
Trapping/snaring (all species)*	15	15	28	28	22
Fox hunting	2	6	2	2	0
Hunting with dogs (all Protection Wild Mammals Act offences)	22	41	22	38	85
Total	39	62	52	68	107

Source: Police Scotland

*These offences may be duplicated elsewhere, e.g. illegal killing of a badger by snaring would be recorded in 'Badger persecution' and 'Trapping/snaring'

Table 16: Quarterly Police Scotland data for 2020-2021

Type of crime	Number of offences
	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar
Badger persecution	7	3	1	3
Bat persecution	2	2	4	0
CITES	0	0	1	0
Freshwater pearl mussels	0	0	0	0
Poaching and coursing	95	46	49	22
Raptor persecution	0	5	4	2
Not related to Priority Area	25	19	6	9
Total	129	75	65	36
Additional breakdowns
Trapping/snaring (all species)*	10	5	3	4
Fox hunting	0	0	0	0
Hunting with dogs (all Protection Wild Mammals Act offences)	35	13	21	16
Total	45	18	24	20

Source: Police Scotland

*These offences may be duplicated elsewhere, e.g. illegal killing of a badger by snaring would be recorded in 'Badger persecution' and 'Trapping/snaring'

Source: Police Scotland

*These offences may be duplicated elsewhere, e.g. illegal killing of a badger by snaring would be recorded in 'Badger persecution' and 'Trapping/snaring'

Badger persecution

All badgers in Scotland are protected by law, but they are sometimes still illegally targeted by those who see them as a pest or for the purposes of illegal animal fights.

Reckless or intentional damage, destruction and interference to badger setts (including sett blocking) is an offence which may arise from unlicensed forestry, agricultural or construction works.

Recorded crimes

Table 17 and figure 2 show that there were 14 offences relating to badger persecution recorded by Police Scotland in 2020-21, compared to 11 in 2019-20. Table 18 provides a quarterly breakdown of offences.

Table 17: Badger offences 2020-21 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Type of offence	Number of offences
North East	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	4
Tayside	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	1
	Cruelty/Shooting	1
Highlands and Islands	Cruelty/Shooting	4
	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	2
Lanarkshire	Killing*	3
	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Cruelty/Shooting	1
Total		14

Source: Police Scotland

*includes sett trap

Table 18: Badger offences 2020-21 by species and quarterly breakdown

Type of Crime	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	5	1	0	2	8
Killing	1	2	0	0	3
Disturbance	1	0	1	1	3
Total	7	3	1	3	14

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

Bat persecution

Bats and their roosts are protected by the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994), which gives strict legal protection to all species listed under Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive – known as European Protected Species (EPS). Scotland's bat population is relatively small compared to other parts of the UK.

Bats, their breeding sites and resting places are at particular risk from development works and evidencing the presence of bats in these cases can be very challenging. Police Scotland work closely with NatureScot bat specialists in the investigation of any alleged offences.

Recorded crimes

Table 19 and figure 3 show there were eight offences involving bat persecution recorded by Police Scotland in 2020-21.

Table 19: Summary of 2020-21 bat persecution offences

Police Division	Type of Offence	Date
Tayside	Killing Bat	Dec-20
Highlands and Islands	Damage and obstruction to roost (2)	Sep-20
Forth Valley	Damage and obstruction to roost (2)	Jun-20
Forth Valley	Damage and obstruction to roost (3)	Oct-20

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It is an international agreement between governments, which aims to protect certain animal and plant species from over-exploitation by trade.

In Scotland and the rest of the UK, this agreement is given legal authority by the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997, known as COTES.

Recorded crimes

There was one CITES-related offence recorded by Police Scotland in 2020-21. This involved the selling of a leopard skin handbag in Tayside.

Source: Police Scotland

Freshwater Pearl Mussels

Scotland supports several of the largest remaining populations of freshwater pearl mussels (FWPM) in the world some of which continue to be damaged by criminal activity. Pearl fishing continues in Scotland, almost uniquely within Europe. FWPM are also threatened by unlawful river engineering and pollution.

Recorded crimes

There were no recorded offences in relation to FWPM during 2020-21.

Table 19: Summary of 2020-21 FWPM offences

N/A – no recorded offences in 2020-21

Source: Police Scotland

Poaching and coursing

Poaching involves the taking of deer, fish or other game without permission, or using unlawful methods. Coursing is the hunting of animals with dogs. This section sets out the new Police Scotland disaggregated data in addition to providing an overview on the work of the Poaching & Coursing Priority Delivery Group.

Recorded crimes

During 2020-21, 212 poaching and coursing offences were recorded by Police Scotland, compared to 190 offences in 2019-20. Table 20 shows the North East Division has the highest number of recorded hare coursing offences at 26.

Table 21 shows that fish poaching offences are the most commonly recorded at 107 offences, while hare coursing accounted for a further 77 offences.

Table 20: Poaching and coursing offences 2019-20 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target Species	Number of offences
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire	Fish	3
	Deer	2
Ayrshire	Fish	3
	Deer	1
	Hare	1
	Rabbit	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Deer	2
	Hare	1
Edinburgh	Fish	1
Fife	Fish	4
	Hare	6
	Deer	3
	Hare/Roe Deer	1
Forth Valley	Fish	22
	Hare	10
	Deer	1
Glasgow	Fish	4
	Deer	1
Highlands and Islands	Deer	1
	Fish	29
	Hare/Rabbit	1
Lanarkshire	Fish	10
	Deer	2
North East	Deer	6
	Fish	21
	Hare	26
Renfrewshire	Fish	1
	Deer	1
Tayside	Hare	15
	Deer	1
	Fish	2
	Rabbit	1
Lothians and Scottish Borders	Deer	3
	Fish	8
	Hare	17
Total		212

Source: Police Scotland

Table 21: Poaching offences 2020-21 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target Species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Fish	54	29	22	2	107
Deer	8	3	8	5	24
Hare	33	14	17	13	77
Rabbit	0	0	2	0	2
Unknown	0	0	0	2	2
Total	95	46	49	22	212

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

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.

This section presents Police Scotland disaggregated data and SASA poisoning figures in relation to raptor offences.

Poisonings and other recorded crimes

Table 23 and figure 7 show the numbers of birds of prey confirmed by SASA as illegally poisoned between 2016-17 and 2020-21, alongside the number of incidents which resulted in these poisonings. The figures show that red kites remain (15) the most commonly recorded victim of illegal poisoning over the five year period.

Table 22: Bird of prey poisonings, Scotland, 2016-17 to 2020-21

Year	Number of Birds of Prey Poisoned (By Species)					Number of Incidents
	Buzzard	Red kite	Peregrine falcon	Eagle	All
2016-17	3	1	-	-	4	3
2017-18	3	1	-	-	4	4
2018-19	1	3	1	-	5	5
2019-20	2	9	-	-	11	9
2020-21	-	1	-	2*	3	3
Total	9	15	1	2	27	26

Source: Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA)

1. One incident may involve more than one bird

*1 Golden Eagle and 1 Sea Eagle in 2021 data

Source: SASA

Recorded crimes

Raptor persecution offences decreased from 25 in 2019-20 to 11 in 2020-21.

Figure 8, table 24 and table 25 show a summary of bird of prey offences and offences recorded by Police Scotland between 2016-17 and 2020-21. A direct comparison between the datasets is not possible as incidents may involve multiple offences. These figures show that the buzzard (involved in 24 of the 83 cases) was the species most commonly affected over the five year period.

Shooting is the highest recorded crime type for the period (5).

Source: Police Scotland

Table 23: Recorded bird of prey cases in Scotland, 2016-17 to 2020-21 by species involved

	Number of Cases (by species involved)
	Buzzard	Hen Harrier	Peregrine	Red Kite	Eagle	Sea Eagle	Golden Eagle	Goshawk	Merlin	Osprey	Red Kite & Buzzard	Barn Owl	Short Eared Owl	Tawny Owl	Unknown	Sparrowhawk	Various Raptors	Total
2016-17	4	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	-	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	11
2017-18	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	-	1	1	-	1	1	-	12	-	-	24
2018-19	9	-	1	2	-	-	1	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	17
2019-20	8	3	-	10	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	2	-	30*
2020-21	2	1	2	1	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	1	1**	12
Total	24	6	5	14	4	1	3	2	1	5	1	1	2	1	19	4	1	83

Source: Police Scotland

*One buzzard offence was linked to an incident involving six buzzards.

**Tawny Owl and Buzzard in same offence

Table 24: Recorded bird of prey cases in Scotland, 2016-17 to 2020-21 by type of crime

	Number of Cases (by type of crime)
	Disturbance	Egg Theft	Other	Poisoning	Shooting	Trapping	Total
2016-17	4	1	-	3	2	1	11
2017-18	3	1	11	2	5	2	24
2018-19	-	1	3	6	2	5	17
2019-20	1	-	-	13	7	4	25
2020-21	-	-	2	3	5	1	11
Total	8	3	16	27	21	13	88

Source: Police Scotland

Table 25: Summary of recorded bird of prey offences in Scotland 2020-21 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target Species	Number of offences
Dumfries and Galloway	Short Eared Owl	1
Highland and Islands	Buzzard	1
	Red Kite	1
North East	Eagle	2
	Sparrowhawk	1
Renfrewshire	Peregrine Falcon	1
Lanarkshire	Hen Harrier	1
	Various Raptors	1
Lothian and Scottish Borders	Various Raptors	1
Tayside	Peregrine Falcon	2
Total		11

Source: Police Scotland

Table 26 and Figure 9 shows a majority of recorded bird of prey offences occurring during July to September, with 5 of the 11 total offences.

Table 26: Bird of prey offences 2020-21 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Eagle	-	1	-	1	2
Buzzard	-	1	-	-	1
Hen Harrier	-	1	-	-	1
Red Kite	-	-	1	-	1
Sparrowhawk	-	1	-	-	1
Peregrine Falcon	-	-	1	1	2
Various Raptors	-	-	2	-	2
Short Eared Owl	-	1	-	-	1
Total	0	5	4	2	11

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

Table 27 provides a detailed breakdown of bird of prey incidents for the year 2020-21. One incident may involve more than one bird.

Table 27: Details of recorded bird of prey incidents in Scotland 2020-21

Species targeted	Police Division	Type of offence	Month and year
Buzzard	Highlands and Islands	Shooting	Aug 2020
	Lothians and Scottish Borders	Trapping	Oct 2020
Eagle	North East	Poisoning	Mar 2021
	North East	Poisoning	Jul 2020
Hen Harrier	Lanarkshire	Shooting	Jul 2020
Red Kite	Highlands and Islands	Poisoning	Nov 2020
Sparrowhawk	North East	Trapping	Aug 2020
Peregrine Falcon	Tayside	Shooting	Feb 2021
	Renfrewshire & Inverclyde	Shooting	Oct 2020
Tawny Owl	Lothian and Scottish Borders	Trapping	Oct 2020
Short Eared Owl	Dumfries and Galloway	Shooting	Aug 2020
Various Raptors	Lanarkshire	Registration	Nov 2020

Source: Police Scotland

Fox Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002

This section highlights offences under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. Section 1 of the 2002 Act prohibits the deliberate hunting of a wild mammal with a dog (subject to certain exceptions). The Act is most commonly used in connection with hare coursing, although it has also been used for incidents relating to foxes, deer and badgers. It does not prohibit the hunting of rabbits or rats by dogs.

Recorded crime

Table 29 and figure 10 shows from the disaggregated data from Police Scotland, The total number of "hunting with dogs offences" recorded in 2020-21 (85) increased from 2019-20 (38). Hare coursing makes up the majority of these offences (76).

Source: Police Scotland

Table 28*: Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 'hunting with dogs' offences 2020-21 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target species	Number of offences
Ayrshire	Rabbit	1
	Hare	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Hare	1
Fife	Hare	6
	Roe Deer	3
	Unknown	1
Forth Valley	Hare	10
Highlands and Islands	Unknown	1
North East	Hare	25
Renfrewshire & Inverclyde	Hare	1
Tayside	Hare	15
	Deer	1
	Rabbit	1
Total		85

Source: Police Scotland

*The table does not show offences under Section 18(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act for attempts to commit an offence in relation to killing or taking a wild mammal.

Table 29: Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 'hunting with dogs' offences 2020-21 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Rabbit			2		2
Hare	33	13	17	13	76
Unknown				2	2
Roe Deer	2		1		3
Deer			1	1	2
Total	35	13	21	16	85

Source: Police Scotland

Prosecutions

For the period 2020-2021, one case was reported to COPFS containing a charge under Section 1 of the 2002 Act specifically in connection with the allegation of hunting foxes with dogs.

Trapping and Snaring

Trapping and snaring are methods which can be legitimately used for the control of some types of wildlife such as corvids, rodents or foxes. This may be for conservation purposes, to protect agricultural or sporting interests or for human health and safety reasons. However, the use of traps and snares is subject to legal restrictions designed to prevent harm to non-target species or unnecessary cruelty.

Recorded crimes

Trapping and snaring figures are not shown as part of the recorded crime statistics in Table 1 as the offence data cannot be broken down to that level. The Police Scotland disaggregated offence data in Table 15 shows that 22 offences were recorded for 2020-21, a decrease in the figures from 2019-20 (28).

Table 31 shows that the vast majority (10) of the recorded trapping and snaring offences in 2020-21 occurred between the Highlands and Islands and the Lothians and Scottish Borders divisions.

Table 30: Trapping and snaring offences 2020-21 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Type of offence	Target Species	Number of offences
Ayrshire	Snare	Unknown	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Snare	Rabbit	1
	Otter Trap	Otter	1
	Crayfish Trap	Crayfish	1
Forth Valley	Snare	Deer	2
Highland and Islands	Larsen Trap	Unknown	1
	Fen Trap	Stoat	1
	Snare	Rabbit/Hare	2
	Snare	Stoat	1
Lanarkshire	Snare	Badger	3
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Snare	Unknown	2
	Snare	Fox	1
	Cage Trap	Owl/Buzzard	1
	Snare/Trap	Rabbit	1
Tayside	Snare	Rabbit	1
	Trap	Small Birds	1
	Spring Trap	Unknown/Otter	1
Total			22

Source: Police Scotland

Table 31 shows offences are occurring most frequently in April – June.

Table 31: Trapping and snaring offences 2020-21 by quarterly breakdown

Type of crime	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Snare	6	5	-	4	15
Fen Trap	1	-	-	-	1
Larsen Trap	1	-	-	-	1
Spring Trap	1	-	-	-	1
Glue trap	1	-	-	-	1
Crayfish Trap	-	-	1	-	1
Cage Trap	-	-	2	-	2
Total	10	5	3	4	22

Source: Police Scotland

Prosecutions

In 2020-21, 5 cases related to trapping and 0 cases relating to snaring were reported to COPFS.