It was a wildlife conservation triumph, then got here the corpses – podcast | Rewilding

“Honest sufficient, if it was a choose variety of birds … ,” one farmer mentioned to biodiversity author Phoebe Weston throughout her journey to Scotland, “however when it’s mass homicide, then it’s not acceptable.”

Out on the chilly west coast, there’s a heated dispute about one of many nation’s most profitable ever rewilding programmes: the reintroduce of sea eagles to their pure habitat greater than 50 years in the past.

The eagles, native farmers declare, are killing their lambs – by the lots of. But there isn’t any recorded proof of even a single incident, and lots of conservationists insist it isn’t true.

So, Helen Pidd asks, what’s killing Scotland’s lambs?