A coalition of ten environmental and outdoor organisations have repeated their appeal to the Scottish Government to introduce urgent safeguards for mountain hare populations. The group – which includes the John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Scotland and the RSPB – is asking for a temporary ban on all mountain hare culling on grouse moors until measures are put in place to ensure their numbers can remain at acceptable, sustainable levels. The Scottish Government has a duty to maintain mountain hare populations in a state of good health, otherwise it may be in breach of its legally binding international obligations for this…

More beavers will soon be arriving at the Scottish Beaver Trial site in Knapdale Forest, mid-Argyll. The Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), the lead partners in the project have been granted a species licence to reinforce the population of Eurasian beavers at the Trial site. Up to 28 beavers will be released into lochans on land managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland at Knapdale over the next three years. The idea behind the project is to give the small Knapdale beaver population the best possible chance of thriving in the long-term and to increase the…

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has restricted the use of licences to control birds in two separate cases this week. The decision was made on the basis of evidence provided by Police Scotland of wildlife crime against birds. These are the third and fourth such restrictions imposed by SNH. Edradynate Estate in Perthshire and an unamed individual in Aberdeenshire will have their licences restricted. They may still apply for individual licences, but these will be closely monitored. General licences allow landowners or land managers to carry out actions which would otherwise be illegal. This includes controlling common species of wild birds,…