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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    That’s my understanding too but I don’t speak for the RSPB. (or for BOU!) The provenance of the EOs in the UK (and whether to cull them)and the debate on whether it was ever a native breeder has been going on for the past 15 years in my memory and became extremely passionate on both sides when...
  2. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    If you read the paper ‘King Edward’ that I linked to in replying to the question Dan asked me, it summarise very well (and simply!) all the points you’ve just made. I’m not sure of the RSPB’s current stance on EOs. I haven’t done any workfor them for several years (part of which involved...
  3. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    exactly that (also they don’t hand around - hedgehogs have a ridiculously good sense of smell so will detect the smell of badger scent (and can also leg it pretty quickly if they need to!)...
  4. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    I agree with this (I was responding more to the hyperbolic statement above saying ‘badgers had decimated the hedgehog population’ ) but I would also just add that Hedgehogs will tend to avoid areas of badger density also which might account for some of the low numbers in high density areas and...
  5. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    In fact it’s very possible they succumbed to a parasitic infection or secondary poisoning from eating slugs for example. Hedgehogs can succumb to all sorts of pathogens some of which are major causes of fatality...
  6. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    Its already been explained to you why Thetford Forest would be a bad choice for an EO ‘introduction’. No one knows why Hedgehog populations are declining so much (but it’s less likely to do with badgers as you suggest (East Anglia has a very low density) but rather habitat fragmentation and...
  7. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    quid pro quo for a moratorium on Hen Harriers?
  8. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    oh I don’t know Pat - probably better to be thought of as being awesome than to be accused of being ‘vapid’ I suppose :-O. (is it possible the ‘raptor lover’ doth protest too much?)
  9. Deb Burhinus

    Why is the RSPB SO against eagle-owls?

    Do you actually know what you’re talking about? The UK hedgehog rural population is down 50% since 2000 alone and still declining. The Brecks, particularly Thetford Forest, is one of the important areas hedgehogs are thriving due to sandy soils that epitomises the forest floor and the diversity...
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