A natural death on Mull

When satellite tagged hen harriers suddenly vanish, as has happened four times already this year with Chance, Highlander, Elwood, and Brian, the questions left unanswered are almost as painful as the disappearance itself. However, sometimes - just sometimes - a body is recovered and the mind can rest easy.

Hermione was one of four young to fledge from a nest on an estate owned and managed by the charity, Highland Renewal, on the Hebridean Isle of Mull in 2016. She was satellite-tagged by the Hen Harrier LIFE Project on 29^th July 2016, and her name was chosen as the winner of an online poll run by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), who sponsored the tag. 

Female hen harrier, Hermione, on the Isle of Mull, shortly after having her satellite tag fitted. (Image: Paul Haworth)

After fledging a few days later, Hermione spent all her time close to her nest area on Mull, with her tag sending out clear and consistent signals. On 28^th September, however, it became clear from the data received that she had stopped moving. RSPB Scotland Investigations staff attended within a few days and quickly located her body and the transmitter, only a few kilometres from her nest – it was clear that she had died naturally, and her remains had been partially eaten. Sad though this is, many young harriers do not survive their first winter, with starvation or predation a regular cause of death.

It is interesting to contrast the death of Hermione with the disappearances of the four satellite tagged hen harriers mentioned above. The locating of Hermione’s body was straightforward, because, as we’d expect with birds dying of natural causes, her transmitter continued to provide us with good location data, directing our search efforts. In the cases of Highlander, Chance, Brian and Elwood, transmitters that were functioning similarly well, suddenly and unexpectedly stopped. While we will never definitively be able to say what happened to them without recovering their bodies, the weight of evidence is strongly suggestive of human interference and it is highly likely that these birds were killed, and the transmitters destroyed. 

Arati Iyengar from UCLan offered this comment: "It is very sad to hear about Hermione’s death. However, there is some consolation in that her death was due to natural circumstances unlike in so many previous cases where human interference has been the most likely explanation."

Hermione's satellite data, along with that of all of our previously tagged hen harriers, will now be included in the Scottish Government review of satellite tracking data from golden eagles, hen harriers and red kites. We await their findings with interest. 

In the meantime, we can only hope for a more positive future for our 9 remaining satellite-tagged hen harriers. Join us in following their fortunes on the Hen Harrier LIFE Project website at www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife or @RSPB_Skydancer.

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Hermione’s satellite tag was sponsored by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), whose researchers have recently developed a forensic DNA identification kit specific to hen harriers, which allows individual birds to be identified from tiny samples of genetic material such as blood or feathers. Find out more about this exciting research here.