A HUNT has been launched for the killer of
'Bowland Betty', a rare bird of prey which conservationists had tracked across
the north of Britain.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is
offering a £1,000 reward for details leading to the conviction of those
responsible for the hen harrier’s death in Colsterdale, south of Leyburn, in
the Yorkshire Dales.
A spokesman for the charity said with hen
harriers on the brink of extinction as a breeding species in England, Betty’s
death was a significant blow to the species’ future.
Betty was raised in Bowland, Lancashire, last
year before being fitted with a satellite tag by Natural England as part of
their Hen Harrier Recovery Project, which tracked Betty’s movements from
Caithness, in Scotland, to North Yorkshire in May.
She ranged around the moors in the Nidderdale
and Colsterdale areas for a few weeks, but in late June the satellite data
indicated Betty had become stationary, raising fears for her safety.
With the cooperation of the Swinton Estate,
Stephen Murphy of the Natural England Hen Harrier Recovery Project found Betty
dead in July.
Betty’s body was sent to the Zoological Society
of London for a post-mortem examination, which revealed that she had a
fractured left leg, leading to her death.
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