30 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“The internet is a natural starting point for many when looking to buy something unusual. If an item can’t be found in local stores, we’re often told that “you can probably find it online.” The multi-billion dollar illegal global wildlife trade is testament to this. Elephant tusks, polar bear pelts, pangolin scales, rhino horns, adult […]

 21 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“A VORACIOUS alien predator has been found in Scotland for the first time after they were bought into the UK illegally. The National Wildlife Crime Unit has recovered about a dozen marbled crayfish from home aquariums at three properties in the Central Belt, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Marbled crayfish, thought to be native to […]

 09 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“A new DNA database is being set up to hold genetic information on all the rhinoceros horn in the UK in an attempt to stop its theft and trade. It’s probably not every day that a museum will get a couple of drill bits in the post accompanied by a polite request to bore a […]

 09 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“Police Scotland Highland and Islands Division along with partners in the National Wildlife Crime Unit acknowledge the sentence given to Keith Liddell today in what was possibly the largest wildlife crime case in Scotland involving the illegal possession and trading of rare birds’ eggs. The intelligence led operation, which saw the home of Liddell being […]

 07 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“IF ever a species deserved to be obliterated from the countryside, it is the selfish, puerile but highly dangerous egg collector. Their population may have dwindled to the same numbers of the many rare birds they have persecuted over the years, but these obsessive characters still pose a continuing conservation threat the length of the […]

 07 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

A 64-year-old man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of a number of wildlife offences. It follows a police investigation that was assisted by officers from Natural England and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The bodies of over a dozen birds of prey were recovered from the Holt area. The man […]

 01 Apr 2013   Posted by greyheron

“Wildlife bodies have strongly criticised the actions of a Leeds man who failed to comply with laws related to the keeping of birds of prey. Terence Young, aged 53, of Woodland Road, Leeds, appeared in Leeds Magistrates Court yesterday (Thursday 11 April), where he pleaded guilty to five charges under the Control of Trade in […]

 06 Feb 2013   Posted by NWCU2

“A white-tailed sea eagle found dead in West Cork was poisoned, but the cause of death of a second sea eagle in south Kerry has not been determined. The birds had been among 100 released in Killarney National Park as part of a reintroduction programme between 2007 and 2011. So far, 26 have died, including […]

 05 Feb 2013   Posted by NWCU2

“Two more white-tailed sea eagles, introduced to the Killarney National Park from Norway as part of the raptor reintroduction programme over the past five years, have been found dead. Twenty six of the original 100 birds have now been recovered dead, 12 of them poisoned. Poisoning has been confirmed in the case of a female […]

 06 Nov 2012   Posted by greyheron

“Two ‘premier league’ bird egg collectors have been fined for stealing hundreds of rare eggs after a two year police investigation to find the culprits. ‘Obsessive’ collectors Marcus Betteridge, 52, and Seymour Crang, 49, built up a unique collection of rare eggs after stealing them from the nests of birds including lesser redpolls, tree pipits […]