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Efforts to reintroduce White-tailed Eagles to southern England have just suffered a serious setback. It has been announced that two of the 25 individuals released on to the Isle of Wight since 2019 have been recovered dead.<\/p>\n
The eagles were found following \u201cmultiagency operations\u201d in the south of England. One bird is known to have been found in Dorset at the end of January, and the other is rumoured to be in Sussex.<\/p>\n
Both birds are currently undergoing post-mortem examinations, including toxicology to establish whether they have been deliberately poisoned. The police are investigating and have appealed for more information.<\/p>\n
The White-tailed Eagle release project<\/a>, run by Forestry England<\/a> and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation<\/a>, aims to bring these massive eagles, with a wingspan of up to 2.5m, back to Southern England after an absence of 240 years. The birds are native to Britain but were wiped out in England in the 18th<\/sup> century and in Scotland by the beginning of the 20th<\/sup>. The project to reintroduce them to Scotland has been highly successful; there are now 120 breeding pairs.<\/p> While there has been almost universal disappointment and dismay expressed by conservationists and local residents, West Dorset MP Chris Loder appeared to play down the seriousness of the incident. In a tweet on 11 Feb, he wrote: \u201cDorset is not the place for eagles to be reintroduced \u2026 I want Dorset Police to focus on County Lines rather than spend time and resources on this.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Loder then posted a photo of an eagle with a lamb, saying \u201cFor local people asking why I don\u2019t want eagles in Dorset, killing our lambs and plaguing our farmers\u2026. These pictures say a thousand words.\u201d The photographer concerned, Peter Cairns, contacted Mr Loder publicly on Twitter to explain that he had used an already dead lamb to feed to a captive eagle for an editorial story. The birds are being introduced into Hampshire, not Dorset.<\/p>\n As the photographer behind two of these images, I\u2019d recommend you establish the circumstances before using them as evidence. Both are staged for an editorial story using a captive eagle and a dead lamb. Just so you know.<\/p>\u2014 Peter Cairns (@PCairnsPhoto) February 11, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>