Farmers go raven mad over bird gangs

THEY are the "teenage gangs" terrorising the moorlands of Scotland, attacking livestock and raiding the nests of wild birds.


Now landowners are demanding the right to shoot the flocks of juvenile ravens whose numbers have exploded since the species became protected.

Gamekeepers claim the large, black birds – know throughout history as birds of ill-omen and termed collectively as a "conspiracy" or "unkindness" – are roaming the moors in flocks of up to 300, swooping on new-born lambs or the young of moorland species such as red grouse, dunlin, lapwing and curlew.

The Scottish Rural Property Business Group (SRPBG) now wants the government to issue licences to allow it to kill some of the birds to reduce numbers.

The group is also challenging a recent scientific report by Aberdeen University and the wildlife charity RSPB which suggested ravens were not responsible for huge declines in the numbers of wading birds.

SRPBG chairman John Forbes-Leith said environmental groups were in "denial" about the problems as they did not want to "unlock the door to licensed control of ravens.

"Ravens are intelligent, devious and hungry birds – vandals of the moorland, plundering birds' nests in one area before moving on to wreak havoc elsewhere," Forbes-Leith said.

"In our view the science that has so far been presented is inconclusive, but there is very real eyewitness evidence to support our claims of the damage that juvenile ravens can do."

Tim Baynes, a moorland consultant for the SRPBG, explained: "We are not talking about pairs of nesting ravens, we are talking about teenage gangs of sub-mature individuals, aged one or two, which can be a real menace."

Exact numbers of ravens in Scotland are not known but one study suggests the population has grown by at least 400 per cent in 20 years with ravens reappearing in areas they have not been seen in for generations.

For centuries the birds – still called "corbies" by many rural Scots and yet viewed as a symbol of death – were feared and persecuted. Ornithologists believe their numbers were kept unnaturally low across much of Scotland, largely because gamekeepers, worried they would take eggs from game birds, destroyed them.

Official protection, making it an offence to kill them without authorisation, was granted in 1981, although farmers do occasionally get licences to shoot them if large groups target newborn lambs.

But the SRPBG says its members find it difficult to get licences to stop ravens plundering the nests of other species.

The RSPB says there is no evidence that rising numbers of ravens have led to a decline in other moorland species. The Aberdeen University research, published in February, suggested other factors, such as changes to habitat and vegetation cover, as well as an increase in other predators, such as foxes, could be responsible.

"Could it be that the critics of our research are motivated by the fact that the results did not fit their expectations?" said Professor Steve Redpath, one of the research team.

"We have to move away from provocative and unhelpful statements about ravens being 'devious and hungry birds – vandals of the moorland'.

"We should sit down and objectively view the evidence and the uncertainties together and then agree how to move forward based on science."

But the landowners' group claims the study did not fully take into account the recent growth in young bird numbers.

It says: "In early spring, juvenile ravens congregate in highly-mobile flocks of 200-300 birds and predate for food across moorland areas. Prime targets are the eggs of ground-nesting birds such as curlew and lapwing. The ravens panic the birds off their nests, take their eggs and then move on. By early summer, the raven gangs have dispersed, the only evidence of their activity being a marked decline in numbers of the birds on which they predate."

The Game and Conservation Wildlife Trust, which carries out research on Scotland's upland areas, said it would support the issuing of more shooting licences by the national countryside agency, Scottish Natural Heritage.

Dr Adam Smith, the trust director, said: "Our research suggests that the licensed control of ravens and an assessment of the response of wader populations would be a constructive approach."

Ron Macdonald, Head of Policy & Advice, Scottish Natural Heritage, said the agency recognised there was "a developing issue with large flocks of sub-mature, non breeding ravens and the potential negative impacts they may have on wild birds. We are working with land managers to try and find practical solutions to these problems."

The Corbie myths
The ancient Celtic Britons – or Welsh as we call them now – believed the raven was an omen of death. They supposedly pecked out the eyes of those who fell in battle. One of King Arthur's knights mobilised a Corbie army.

• Scottish Celtic myths feature the raven and related species as a sign of death. Somebody who has died is still said to have taken the Crow Road. The Norse, native Siberians and Irish have similar stories, as do some Muslims.

• Ancient British legends were picked up by Anglo-Saxons and Normans. England, it is said, will fall when the ravens leave the Tower of London.

• Greeks believed that Apollo turned the raven black when the bird informed him of the unfaithfulness of his lover, Coronis. This episode gave the raven a reputation as a tattler, a spy, and a divulger of secrets.

By David Leask
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/nature/Farmers-go-raven-mad-over.6267229.jp