Vervolging van roofvogels in Nederland in 2005

Poisoning incidents (n=35) and deliberate disturbance of nests (n’l 14) were recorded throughout The Netherlands, not only in regions renown for such incidents (provinces of Friesland, Noord-Brabant and Limburg; Fig. 1) but increasingly also elsewhere in the wake of an expanding raptor population. Among the victims of poisoning, Common Buzzards Buteo buteo and Northern Goshawks Accipiter gentilis figured prominently (Table 2), but other species as Eurasian Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus and Eurasian Kestrel Falco tinnunculus were also affected. Poisoning was mostly realised by providing poisoned baits, using common pesticides like aldicarb (15x), carbofuran (17x) and parathion (3x). Disturbing nests by keeping parents away from the nest or by destroying eggs or killing nestlings is widespread, especially in regions where meadowbirds are (or have been) nesting in high densities. Regionally, and especially in the province of Friesland with a tradition of egg collecting, protection of species like Vanellus vanellus and Limosa limosa includes the illegal removal, destruction or killing of as many predators as possible, among which protected species like raptors. This attitude is supported by part of the local populace, and therefore difficult to counteract. Based on the recorded intensity of persecution (Table 2), the large and representative sample of nest cards (>4000 in 2005) and recent population estimates of raptor species (Bijlsma 2006), it is calculated that a minimum of 635 raptor nest were destroyed in 2005, mostly Buzzard (400), Marsh Harrier (74) and Goshawk (64). A similar calculation for the period 1996-2005 for the entire Netherlands indicates that a minimum of 5592 raptor nests must have been destroyed, with Buzzard (3127), Goshawk (869), Marsh Harrier (642), Sparrowhawk (608) and Kestrel (258) as main victims of human persecution. Many more nests failed under suspicious circumstances without showing traces of human tampering. Following the high profile given to raptor persecution in the Dutch media and by the Dutch Raptor Group, and a series of convictions (involving hunters, falconers, pigeon fanciers and keepers of domesticated animals), the perpetrators have refined their methods such that it has become more difficult to unequivocally prove human tampering. Illegal activities are furthermore facilitated by a slackening enforcement of wildlife laws, and frequent transfers to other posts of government officials specialised in wildife crime (reducing the efficiency of law enforcement).