By Graeme Esson BBC Scotland news website

Alan Stewart is Tayside's wildlife crime officer

Alan Stewart had an explosive introduction to the world of wildlife crime.

For the last 12 years he has been at the helm of Tayside Police's fight against the criminals who target the area's animals, birds and habitats.

But his first encounter with poachers proved to be a one-off.

Back in 1966, a year after joining the force as a cadet, he was stationed at Dunblane when he stopped a minivan.

"It contained 43 salmon which had been taken from the River Devon by using explosives," he recalled.

"That was my first and only encounter with fish that had been taken by explosives."

Poaching cases

Mr Stewart had spent his formative years in the countryside, and even worked on a farm before joining the police.

His rural background came in handy as he spent a lot of time dealing with poaching cases - mostly using the more traditional methods.

In 1993 he was promoted to inspector and given the role as force wildlife crime officer, making him only the second person in Scotland to fill such a position.

We don't want to creep up behind folk and dive out and catch them committing a crime Alan Stewart

The 57-year-old - who was made an MBE in 2000 - has done the job on a civilian basis since his retirement in 1996.

The Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders forces have also created full-time posts dedicated to tackling wildlife, with the latter having the only serving officer dedicated to the role.

There are now up to 90 part-time wildlife crime officers with forces across Scotland.

"The police now have a greater awareness of it, they see it as part of the police role," said Mr Stewart.

"It has always been the statutory job of the police, but until reasonably recently they didn't make a very good job of it.

Hare coursing

"It was little more than lip service paid to investigating wildlife crime and it had to be virtually handed to them on a plate, but now we are self-sufficient."

Wildlife crime covers a wide remit, from offences like hare coursing - where the force has seen significant success - through to the digging up of snowdrops without a landowner's permission.

Mr Stewart has also been involved in investigating the release of a large number of hamsters and guinea pigs into the countryside at Little Glenshee.

Some were caught and saved, but the rest of the pets perished in the Perthshire countryside last December.

Police are taking action against bird poisoning

"Somebody released them to certain death," said Mr Stewart.

"I was convinced someone locally had got fed up keeping them and that one of their neighbours would have contacted us, but I haven't heard anything."

He is still hoping for information - but admitted that 40 years of police work had shown him wildlife crime was the hardest area to get the evidence necessary to prosecute offenders.

"The law has been updated over the last three or four years, and that has made a tremendous difference, but prior to that it really was hellishly difficult to get a case to court."

Witnesses are hard to find due to the remote location of many offences, and Mr Stewart acknowledged that prevention was the key to tackling wildlife crime.

Snowdrops cannot be taken from fields without permission

"We don't want to creep up behind folk and dive out and catch them committing a crime," he said.

"We would rather prevent the crime happening in the first place."

His day-to-day job does not fit in with the image you may have of someone whose time is spent scouring the hills and countryside looking for signs of wrongdoing.

He sees himself as a back-room boy, involved with the "tactical stuff" while the uniformed officers handle the field work.

His tasks include liaising with different local organisations, working on training for police officers and trying to get the message across to children through a project in local schools.

Bird poisoning

He is also in daily contact with police forces across the UK as part of Operation Easter, a UK-wide initiative targeting egg thieves and collectors which is run by Tayside Police.

"We have got them on the back foot. A lot of them have been jailed and we are pretty sure that a lot of them have given up," said Mr Stewart.

Work with gamekeepers, landowners and shooting organisations is being credited as one of the reasons why there were no reports of bird poisonings in Tayside over the last 12 months.

It is a vocation, and that would apply to most of us Alan Stewart

"My job is a lot of that kind of stuff rather than going out on wet days and getting my feet wet - much as I would prefer to go out on wet days," he said.

He said all those involved in fighting wildlife crime were dedicated to the task.

"The police officers have a pretty full day every day and very often they do their wildlife crime duties over and above their 40-hour week.

"I don't think there would be a week when I do less than 50 hours, but it is enjoyable.