Published:
Saturday, Jun 1st, 2019
A
dead raven found on Ruabon Moor, near World’s End, has been confirmed as
deliberately poisoned – triggering a police investigation.
The
bird was found dead on 28 August 2018 by a man who had been out photographing
birds.
He
said: “I was coming home from Wrexham when I noticed the bird on the ground,
away from the road in a little clearing of grass. It was upside down, its eyes
sunken, and its feet in the air. It didn’t look like it had been dead for
long.”
Thinking
it may have been shot, he contacted the RSPB’s Investigations Unit. Following
liaison with the North Wales Police, Welsh Government arranged for toxicology
tests on the bird. This revealed that the raven had been deliberately poisoned
with the highly toxic insecticide bendiocarb which had been most likely been
applied to a bait.
Police
enquires in the area have failed to identify anyone responsible.
Ravens
are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Killing one is a
criminal offence and could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in
jail.
Ruabon
Moor holds a significant proportion of the Welsh black grouse population and is
an area managed for red grouse shooting. In 2018, two rare hen harriers named Heulwen and Aalin went off
the radar in this general area, the birds had been fitted with
satellite-tracking devices as part of the EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project.
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