Grouse moors throughout Scotland will likely be required to carry licences and will face taking pictures bans as a part of radical measures to fight chicken of prey persecution handed by MSPs on Thursday.

The Scottish parliament voted for the controls amid intense stress from conservation scientists and campaigners after a long time of unlawful assaults on birds of prey by gamekeepers instructed to guard grouse on taking pictures estates from being eaten.

The wildlife administration and muirburn invoice features a ban on snaring of foxes and rabbits in Scotland, the licensing of muirburn – the method the place heather is selectively burned to provide shoots for grouse to eat – and the licensing and tagging of traps used to catch crows, weasels, moles and stoats.

Jim Fairlie, the agricultural affairs minister and a former hill farmer, stated its measures “would shield our wildlife, help our rural companies and shield our iconic moorlands”. It will “finish the stain and the disgrace of raptor persecution and [allow] animal welfare to be on the forefront of accountable land administration”.

He instructed MSPs grouse moor licensing, really helpful in 2019 by an inquiry chaired by Prof Alan Werritty, was wanted as a result of the taking pictures business had failed, regardless of repeated warnings, to police itself by “shutting down” the perpetrators recognized to be persecuting birds of prey. “So now it’s as much as us,” he stated.

Hours earlier than the vote it emerged that police had been investigating the unexplained disappearance of one other satellite-tagged hen harrier, a chicken of prey routinely focused for persecution by gamekeepers, on grouse moors within the Angus Glens close to Dundee.

The Royal Society for the Safety of Birds stated the chicken, known as Shalimar, was the fourth hen harrier to go lacking, together with a golden eagle and a white-tailed eagle, in an space “infamous” for persecution. It had been tagged on the Nationwide Belief for Scotland’s Mar Lodge property final yr.

Shalimar’s tag abruptly stopped sending out indicators on 15 February; a search of the realm by Police Scotland, the Nationwide Wildlife Crime Unit and RSPB investigations employees had did not find both the chicken or its tag.

Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland’s head of investigations, stated: “Whereas these provisions have come simply too late to stop Shalimar changing into the newest hen harrier to probably disappear by the hands of criminals, we hope the brand new laws will assist to consign raptor persecution to the historical past books in Scotland.”

Grouse moor homeowners and gun sports activities our bodies argue licensing goes too far, saying it’s going to injury a fragile business that helps 1000’s of rural jobs. In addition they stated persecution incidents had been uncommon and remoted.

Scottish Land and Estates, which represents landowners, and the Scottish Gamekeepers Affiliation stated banning snaring would imply extra endangered ground-nesting birds could be eaten by predators.

Rachael Hamilton, an MSP with the Scottish Conservatives – the one get together to vote in opposition to the invoice – stated the extent to which ministers had “ignored proof and sidelined science has been frankly astonishing”. Solely 4 incidents had been recorded final yr, the bottom on latest document. Ministers had proven “disdain for evidence-based policymaking”, she stated.

RSPB knowledge data 488 chicken of prey persecution incidents in Scotland from 2007 to 2022, concentrated round grouse moors within the Highlands and southern uplands, together with taking pictures, poisoning, snaring, trapping and nest destruction.

Its investigators consider scores of different killings have been undetected as a result of proof was destroyed; an professional examine on golden eagles in Scotland discovered they did not roost or breed in massive areas of the Highlands populated by taking pictures estates.

This article by Severin Carrell was first printed by The Guardian on 21 March 2024. Lead Picture: The tag of hen harrier Shalimar abruptly stopped sending out indicators on 15 February. {Photograph}: RSPB.

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