There are likely to be many cameras in strategic locations, and they probably have their favourite spots they shoot from anyway, wouldn’t be all that hard, humans are creatures of habit largely, and as evidenced here, some are less intelligent than others. Utter disgrace.
U are kidding arent u?
On thousands off acres of moorland they have a camera in the perfect place the exact time theyre going to do sonerhing illegal.
Wot nonesense.
And absolutely perfect sound quality.
Bloody hell the radios never work that clearly on a shoot day when u have the other radio in ur hand.
Amd there picking it up crystal clear from meters away with a hidden camera in heather??
Most hill shoots will be using decent radios pretty sure theyre all encrypted and tied to the others in the set.
Chances of rspb having same brand on the right channel?
I cant believe anyones taking that clip seriously.
Absolutely nothibg ilkegal happened ib the clip even if the codes they were talkung about were real.
Lets look at actual facts Hh are breeding more succesfully now than for last 100 years.
The most succesful nests are on managed grouse moors.
Most of the failed nests are often 'monitored' possibly far too closely by rspb volanteers etc.
Which is never talked about.
Alastair mitchel used to write good articles every year in the STs with the stats of nest succeses/failures, im slightly out of touch now as dobt buy the ST now.
Generally speaking 1st year mortality of any appex predator is high, so with the added stress of living in such a harsh climate its only natural HH mortality will be naturally high.
Its also perfectly normal for them to be dying naturally on grouse moors as rhats where most of food and better habitat and other HH so any tussles over territory will be, so they are going to die where they spend most of their time.
Even if this vid is exactly wot it says it is and the keeper is looking to kill an HH.
How many do u think hes killing in a year?
Bear in mind Langholm 1 and 2 had a peak of roughly 24 and 17 pairs over i think 15K acres.
Amd it was an absolute freak to have numbers anywhere near that.
Most moors will be lucky to have 1 or 2 HH on them.
So even if the keeper is breaking the law ur still talking very small numbers ( which is significant in the small but growing HH population)
So again thousands of acres of moorland, perfect camera angles, perfect sound quality on an illegal act hes ( assuming he is illegally persecuting them) hes committing 1 or 2 times a year.
And all placed and monitored without being seen and no suspicions raised, no strange cars parked etc
Whoever placed the cameras should be buying a lottery ticket, the odds of all those coming in is massive esp on a nice day when not blowing a gale
And before i get the burying head in sand etc comments.
So many shooters are happy to believe grouse keepers do this.
And they will be but the numbers will be absolutely tiny.
Before u take the moral high ground.
I have just deleted some as unlike many im not going to throw another type of shooting under the bus.
But all i'll say is not an upland problem infacr i'd say the oppisate it true.
Believe u me as soon as grouse shooting is licensed and legislated out off viability ( in scotland it may not be far off now, with snaring ban, stoats in fenns, muirburn rules changing, ban on shooting blue hares, GL removal upon SUSPICION of wildlife crime, hell even the hunting ban 2 dog rule + plus ur licensing to shoot even 1 grouse. Most off those rules are relatively recent last 5 years or so)
Most scottish moors run at a massive massive loss anyway.
Its when waders and all these other once common birds finally disapear as managed moors are the only place their thriving.
But far far far too late when theyre all gone.
And plenty of documented cases where thats exactly wot happens
All the same tactics will switch to low land shoots
Dont be to quick to believe clips like that,
