The story of Bowland Betty is one of a Hen Harrier satellite-tagged in Bowland in 2011 and then travelling around much of upland Britain before being found dead on a Yorkshire grouse moor in June 2012.
Bowland Betty was shot, not necessarily on the Swinton Estate on which she was found, but most probably nearby, by person or persons unknown.
A detailed analysis of the metal embedded in her two legs has just been published in the Veterinary Record case reports in a paper entitled Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) confirms shooting of a hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) by Timothy Charles Hopkins, Gabriela Peniche, Stephen Murphy, Ian Carter, Guy Shorrock, Stuart Kearns, Gordon Blunn, Allen Goodship and Anthony W Sainsbury.
The metal in Bowland Betty’s legs was mostly lead with traces of arsenic and antimony – that’s what you expect from lead shot. Previous reports, made much of by some in the shooting industry, of niobium in the metal were errors of the original analysis and therefore can be discounted. So there’s nothing suspicious about the metal content.
There is nothing suspicious about Bowland Betty’s death, just something illegal – she was shot. Interestingly the scientific paper states that ‘As there was no significant bone resorption or remodelling
around the metal or adjacent bone, the authors inferred that the injury likely led to the rapid death of this hen harrier.’ although whether that means seconds, minutes, hours or days isn’t clear. I guess it means hours?
Thanks for this. I wonder if Monro/Monrover (a pro-shooting activist who repeatedly raised this niobium quibble and claimed that it exonerated the shooting industry, consistently stating on multiple forums that there was “no evidence of illegal persecution of Hen Harriers in England”) will acknowledge the new information and that he was wrong. Somehow I doubt it.
No doubt Andy Richardson will soon be claiming it was the RSPB that did it.
Sickening.
Betty actually died somewhere on the flat moor top between the sandy track and the top of the birch tree in the picture of Henry. A place with a very very poor history for Hen Harriers and no nesting attempts in the area since 2007 and little chance of recolonisation under the current management regime.