Chamber and committees

Petitioner submission of 29 December 2021

PE1859/V - Retain falconers rights to practice upland falconry in Scotland

The main question posed by the committee members (Bill Kidd) was how falconers act to ensure their birds do not take protected species.

This question must be both proportioned and balanced. For example, the latest available data about the predation of uncontrolled free roaming domestic cats annually (not including feral or wild cats) is as follows.

‘Based on the proportion of cats bringing home at least one prey item and the back- transformed means, a British population of approximately 9 million cats was estimated to have brought home in the order of 92 (85-100) million prey items in the period of this survey (1st of April to 31st of August - a period of just 5 months), including 57 (52-63) million mammals, 27 (25-29) million birds and 5 (4-6) million reptiles and amphibians.’

Among this enormous tally of 85 -100 million creatures killed by domestic cats in just 5 months, there will be an eye watering number of protected and genuinely endangered species.

The falconer on the other hand has a ‘quarry list’ and falconers flying on lowland in the ‘off the fist’ manner have the very easy job of observing the quarry item before releasing the trained raptor. If a non target species (whether protected, endangered or not) flushes, the raptor is not released. It is fair and proportionate that if a falconer releases a bird from the fist with the aim of having it catch a protected species, then the falconer should quite rightly face prosecution in the same way that a person raising a gun and shooting a protected species should.

The ‘upland falconer’ aiming to allow the entirely naturally flight style of the bird does NOT fly an enormous species like a Golden Eagle ‘off the fist’. Rather, the bird is taken to remote, isolated, high places - those natural to such a species, and where the wildlife present are hardy upland creatures. Once here, the eagle is released to soar on strong wind at altitude above the mountains. This is a re-creation of the totally natural flight style of the species, and is the flight that the eagle has evolved for - the very reason the species lives in the mountains and the reason that evolution has shaped it the way it has.

The falconer goes to these places because the reality is that NOTHING lives here that a trained Golden Eagle will hunt that is endangered, threatened or protected. Additionally, rabbits do not exist at these altitudes, but the Golden Eagle’s most natural quarry - the mountain hare, does, and it occurs here in enormous numbers contrary the false information propagated by some organisations. 

In short, the falconer with a large bird of prey, aiming to reproduce and allow natural flight goes to the natural location where endangered, protected and threatened species that could be killed by the trained eagle do not exist. It is a further affirmation of the responsible practices of conservation minded falconers.

If cats are to be allowed to roam freely and show behaviour natural to the species, free of risk of having their owners prosecuted if they kill a protected species, then so must the falconer be safe to fly their bird in remote upland areas of Scotland, free of unjustified risk of prosecution.

I must also reiterate that falconers are by and large a conservation minded body of people. As a group, falconers look after and care for a multitude of environments that allow the practice of falconry to continue with only a positive influence on wildlife and the countryside. I personally have taken responsibility for a small field (14 acres) from a local farmer. I manage the land as a wildlife haven providing food, cover and habitat in an area that I fly lowland species of birds of prey. Surrounded by intense arable farmland, this area, formerly devoid of any living vertebrate, is now an oasis and a nirvana for species of wildlife not seen here for more than three decades but who now thrive here and are slowly expanding their range from this central point of genesis.

This is typical of the work of falconers who are quietly improving biodiversity and reversing habitat loss in a manner that supports their falconry practices.

Eroding the options available to falconers does not just harm the welfare of their birds, deny them their right under the 5 freedoms to ‘demonstrate behaviour natural to the species’, and the heritage pastime of falconry, but it also removes the motivation to continue their work in conservation.

I repeat our request that the amendment to legislation brought to bare placing the mountain hare on schedule 5 of the wildlife and countryside act should be further amended with the line:

‘Except for the purpose of falconry.’