AR-News: (Scot) Elite troops target Scots egg thieves

[Ronda Roaring]

Saturday April 17, 02:59 AM 

Elite troops target Scots egg thieves 
SPECIAL forces from covert Scottish units are to be called in to help the battle against poachers and egg thieves, who threaten some of the country's most endangered birds of prey. 
Elite troops from the Royal Marines based at Faslane, who normally operate behind enemy lines gathering intelligence and identifying targets for the Royal Air Force, are to watch over threatened hen harrier nests as part of an initiative to halt the bird's persecution. 
The soldiers will later this month become the newest recruits to Operation Artemis - a crackdown on crimes against the raptor species launched earlier this year by the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW). 
Together with the Scottish Executive, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland (RSPB), Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish police forces, the troops will gather information via covert surveillance of remote hen harrier nests, remaining in hiding for up to two weeks at a time without breaking cover. 
Equipped with binoculars, telescopes, listening equipment and night-vision goggles, the troops will have to live in cramped conditions in shallow dugouts covered with camouflage material, eating, sleeping and going to the toilet without leaving the post. 
Although the soldiers will principally be based at Garelochhead army training base, above the Faslane nuclear submarine depot, where the resident six hen harrier pairs form 1 per cent of the total remaining European population of the species, they may be rolled out to other areas across Scotland to monitor other raptors at risk of persecution. 
The hen harriers have been targeted by landowners and gamekeepers owing to the fact that red grouse moors provide ideal conditions for them to live. In Scotland, 432 breeding pairs of the raptors survive, making it the last stronghold in the UK. 
Constable John Simpson, the Ministry of Defence Police wildlife liaison officer at Coulport armaments depot, said: "All they need to do as soon as they see someone encroaching in towards a nest is fire a radio message out to a control room which comes out to myself or one of my colleagues, and we can intercept them. 
"The good thing about this technique is that you just wouldn't know they were there. They don't break cover for any reason, and can just report back exactly what they are seeing in detailed documentation, so the egg collector, or whoever it is that is doing what they are doing, is easily observed. 
"Evidentially it is a superb technique for making sure the nests are protected." 
PC Simpson added: "We combine their training with a conservation purpose and it means that we are both getting something out of it. I can go away knowing that the site is being looked after on a 24-hour basis." 
Hen harriers rarely fly in wet weather, but in dry conditions they spend much of the day on the wing. Hunting begins at daybreak and the birds search the same ground each day with a characteristic gliding flight before plunging out of sight as they drop on their prey. 
Dave Dick, a senior investigations officer with RSPB Scotland, said: "I have been delighted to work with the military in the past and they are the ultimate surveillance tool. 
"If people think that there are military personnel on grouse moors in Scotland, it may have a deterrent effect, as we have seen the keepers that are killing these birds be incredibly hard-edged. 
"The military are very good at catching people. There have been two occasions where egg collectors have been caught in the act, both relating to osprey nests." 
He added: "It is hard, but they are delighted to do it because they are training with a live target and get to do full surveillance as they would in a war situation." 
By: JAMES REYNOLDS ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT -- 17-Apr-04 
Click Here to Visit The Scotsman Web Site 


		
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