Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 982 Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland COMMISSIONED REPORT Commissioned Report No. 982 Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland For further information on this report please contact: Professor Des Thompson Scottish Natural Heritage Silvan House 231 Corstorphine Road EDINBURGH EH12 7AT Telephone: 0131 316 2630 E-mail:
[email protected] This report should be quoted as: Whitfield, D.P. & Fielding, A.H. 2017. Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 982. This report, or any part of it, should not be reproduced without the permission of Scottish Natural Heritage. This permission will not be withheld unreasonably. The views expressed by the author(s) of this report should not be taken as the views and policies of Scottish Natural Heritage. © Scottish Natural Heritage 2017. COMMISSIONED REPORT Summary Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland Commissioned Report No. 982 Project No: 015542 Contractor: Natural Research Year of publication: 2017 Keywords Golden eagle; satellite tagging; Scotland; juvenile dispersal; wind farms; grouse moor; persecution; illegal killing. Background The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform requested a thorough investigation of the fates of satellite tagged raptors, especially golden eagles. This report provides a major review of the movements and fates of golden eagles satellite tagged during 2004 - 2016. Of 131 young eagles tracked, as many as 41 (31%) have disappeared (presumably died) under suspicious circumstances significantly connected with contemporaneous records of illegal persecution.