By Graeme Esson
BBC Scotland news website |
 Golden eagle numbers are falling in the east of Scotland |
Police in Tayside have notched up 12 months without any bird poisoning cases being reported, it has emerged. Wildlife crime officer Alan Stewart said it was probably the first year without a case since Victorian times.
He said new court powers and efforts to work with those often blamed for such crimes had contributed to the success.
Gamekeepers welcomed the news but the RSPB warned against complacency and said birds of prey were still facing persecution in eastern Scotland.
Mr Stewart told BBC Scotland's news website that the number of poisoning cases in Tayside had fluctuated over the last decade, from a high of nine in 1997 to just two in 2003.
 |  I am not as naive as to think that nothing has happened, but it must be considerably less because there are far more eyes and ears out looking for these things |
He said a degree of trust had now been built up with organisations like the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation.
"We are trying to show them that the shooting fraternity committing crime alienates the public from support of shooting," he said.
"Hopefully the bulk of them seem to have got the message and at least the more serious crimes have reduced."
He said the last reported poisoning incident in Tayside was in March last year.
"I am not as naive as to think that nothing has happened, but it must be considerably less because there are far more eyes and ears out looking for these things," he said.
Mr Stewart said police had tried to help gamekeepers in their work where they could.
Birds of prey
"Hopefully there is a bit of respect from the shooting side, and that might have impacted on the cutting down of crimes associated with that particular group."
He said they were not the only suspects in poisoning cases, as farmers and pigeon racers had also been caught targeting birds of prey.
He said the increased sentencing powers made available to Scottish courts had also played a part in reducing the number of offences.
"If anyone is caught committing these crimes they can go to jail for up to six months.
"That has got to be a partial deterrent, but imprisonment on its own is not a deterrent - there needs to be a risk of getting caught.
"We are showing that there is a fairly substantial risk that people committing wildlife crime will be caught."
Alex Hogg, chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, said: "I think it is great news and hopefully it will go through the length and breadth of the country.
"We have tried to get it through to members that we would never condone this kind of thing."
However, a spokesman for RSPB Scotland said the force was showing "worrying complacency".
He pointed out that the numbers of hen harriers and golden eagles were showing a steady decline in the east of Scotland, and that research suggested that persecution - particularly poisoning - was the main reason.
Clipped wing
"A large proportion of that must be going on in Tayside," he said.
The spokesman also pointed to the case of a dead buzzard which was found near Braco last month.
Mr Stewart renewed an appeal for information on the dead bird, which had a clipped wing and missing feathers.
He believes it had been kept in captivity before being left in the wild, unable to defend itself.
"It would have been released to certain death because it could not fly and kill anything," said Mr Stewart.
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