Gruesome lamb attacks devastate farmer mental health

Warning: Article contains graphic material

A distraught hill farmer has revealed how sea eagle attacks on his lambs are severely affecting his mental health and forcing him to consider quitting farming.

In the latest attack, the farmer’s 16-year-old daughter discovered a newborn lamb with its skull punctured by one of the predators on their farm in the western Highlands of Scotland.

The lamb, which was found still alive but severely injured, had been attacked on 23 April by one of the white-tailed eagles nesting close to the lambing field.

See also: More support for Scottish farms affected by sea eagle predation

“My daughter was going round the field to check the lambs when she saw the white-tailed eagle on the ground and went to chase it,” said the farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“For a 16-year-old girl to find that was absolutely heartbreaking.”

The farm is lambing roughly 1,200 ewes, and the farmer estimates that between 45-60 lambs have been lost to sea eagle attacks this season.

“We started lambing on 7 April and had 12 sets of twins in the first week. By the end of that week, there were only two sets of twins still running.

“After that stage, you lose count,” he said.

Despite “perfect” weather conditions for outdoor lambing this season, the farmer estimates having lost hundreds of lambs to sea eagle predation over the past decade, and he says the problem is getting worse.

“The sea eagles have moved their nest to about 20m from our main lambing fields. We are finding more lambs dead in the field, and others are being taken away,” he said.

“It’s getting worse every year – the adult birds are teaching their young to predate on these white fluffy things [lambs].”

The farmer now dreads lambing season. “I’m getting to the point where I’m thinking: ‘What are we doing here?’

“It’s ruining my mental health – you wake up every morning during lambing and dread what’s going to happen.”

This latest sea eagle attack is just one in a string of similar incidents.

Shepherd Raymond Campbell captured footage of a sea eagle snatching a live lamb on 28 March, while crofter Caitrìona Anna NicDhòmhnaill believes she loses a lamb a day to predation at her croft in Ardgour, Lochaber.

Photo supplied by anonymous farmer mentioned in article

RSPB acknowledgment

The RSPB acknowledges the problem but insists that sea eagles take lambs “on very rare occasions” and that such predation is “infrequent”.

David Colthart, a sheep farmer and chairman of the Argyll and Lochaber Sea Eagle Stakeholder Group, said: “This attack shows exactly what’s happening on the ground.

“Sea eagles will swoop down and mortally wound a lamb. They either feed on it there or carry it back to the nest.”

The Scottish government and NatureScot have acknowledged the issue, and have implemented the Sea Eagle Management Scheme.