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Friendly farming could halt Orkney hen harrier decline

December 09, 2002

Loss of preferred hunting habitat has been identified as the most likely cause of decline in Orkney's hen harrier population, according to recent research. Speaking at the British Ecological Society's Winter Meeting, being held at the University of York on 18-20 December 2002, Dr Arjun Amar of the Game Conservancy Trust will say: "Despite the fact that there is no human persecution of this population, hen harriers on the Orkney Islands have declined by over 70% in the last 25 years."

According to Dr Amar: "Recent research has shown that there is a shortage of food for birds on Orkney and that this decline is most likely due to changes in land use causing a reduction in the amount of rough grassland, which is their preferred hunting habitat."

Using a Geographical Information System (GIS) with digitised maps created from satellite images, the research team examined whether the proportion of rough grass habitat had an influence on the breeding success of nests over the last 10 years. If such a relationship existed, then this would provide support for the creation of this type of habitat as a conservation measure to improve the breeding success and reverse the decline of this population.

"We found that such a relationship did indeed exist; birds which nested in areas with more of this habitat had better breeding success - they were more likely to hatch their eggs and more likely to fledge their young compared to birds which had less rough grass around them," Dr Amar says.

These findings have help shaped Scottish Natural Heritage's (SNH) proposal for an Orkney hen harrier recovery project, which aims to pay farmers to create 600 ha of rough grassland around harrier nesting areas. This project is still awaiting final approval from the Scottish Executive, but if successful should be launched in January 2003 and run for the following 8 years.

Dr Helen Riley of Scottish Natural Heritage stated: "It is great to see this research paving the way for a potential turn-around in the fortunes of this very important population of hen harriers."

The research was led by Dr Arjun Amar of the Game Conservancy Trust and Dr Beatriz Arroyo of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). It was funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and supported by Dr Steve Redpath also of CEH, Dr Helen Riley of SNH and Mr Eric Meek of the RSPB.

Dr Arjun Amar will present his full findings at 09:40 on Friday 20 December 2002.

British Ecological Society (BES)