Vervolging van roofvogels in Nederland in 2000

Poisoning incidents (n=33), shooting (n=5), trapping and killing (n=2) and deliberate disturbance of nests (129x) were recorded throughout The Netherlands but particularly in the northern province of Friesland (Fig. 1). This concentration is partly biased given the input of field workers to trace raptor persecution. Over the years, however, it has become increasingly clear that nest disturbances in Friesland are a well-orchestrated phenomenon, involving the combined efforts of hunters, farmers, collectors of Lapwing eggs (a local cult, concentrated in March and early April; these people are very much opposed to other people/animals taking Lapwings or their eggs) and egg-collecting kids. Raptors, crows and red foxes are blamed for the poor vicissitudes of meadow birds in The Netherlands, including Friesland. This idea is formly rooted in the minds of local people, leading to an increase in raptor persecution. In Friesland, nests of raptors are shot at, eggs taken or punctured and full-grown birds captured and killed. Such intensive raptor persecution is more localized in the rest of the country, and then normally related to estates where pheasants are raised for hunting (a practice outlawed in the early 1990s) and individual hunters or pigeon fanciers. Poisoned baits are used to eliminate raptors. In 2000 raptors were mainly poisoned with parathion (22x) and aldicarb (5x), but also with strychnine (3x), alpha-cloralose (lx) and carbofuran (lx). Another threat is emerging in the footsteps of the liberalisation of keeping raptors in captivity. There are indications that the increasing demand leads to an increase in the taking of nestlings from nests of wild pairs.