18 Aug 2026
Photo by Bob Brewer Scotland’s seabirds remain in long-term decline, with average numbers now around half what they were in the 1980s, according to new statistics published by NatureScot on 13 August. A steep long-term fall The Scottish Biodiversity Indicator for Seabirds, which draws on data from the UK Seabird Monitoring Programme, assessed 19 of the 24 […]
04 Aug 2026
Photo by Ray Harrington Permission has been refused for this year’s guga hunt, the centuries-old harvest of young gannets on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, after NatureScot’s board concluded the cull could harm a gannet population still recovering from avian flu. The decision, confirmed on 3 August, brings to a halt Scotland’s last remaining […]
18 Nov 2025
Photo by Anchor Lee Bird flu has caused a 47% decline in breeding female southern elephant seals at South Georgia, wiping out around 53,000 individuals at the world’s largest colony of the species, scientists have warned. The remote sub-Antarctic island is home to 54% of the global breeding population of southern elephant seals, with […]