A reward for information about the illegal killing of birds of prey in the Highlands has been doubled to £10,000.
Sixteen birds - 12 red kites and four buzzards - have been found dead in the area of Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, in recent weeks.
At least some of the birds had been poisoned, and police are carrying out an investigation.
Nature conservation charity RSPB Scotland put up a £5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction and the sum has now been doubled by an anonymous donor said to be "deeply concerned" about the situation.
Duncan Orr-Ewing, head of species and land management for RSPB Scotland, said: "This appalling incident highlights the very real threat illegal poisoning poses to fantastic species like red kites.
"The vulnerable Black Isle population in particular has been repeatedly hit by deaths due to illegal poison use. The Chilterns population in southern England is nearly 10 times bigger, yet both projects started at the same time in 1989 with the same number of birds released into the wild. That is a shocking indictment on behaviour of some in this part of rural Scotland.
"An anonymous donor deeply concerned at the illegal killing of the red kites has come forward to increase our reward for information leading to a prosecution to £10,000. We urge anyone with information to contact Police Scotland as soon as possible."
All of the dead birds have been discovered in a two square mile area to the south east of Conon Bridge around Conon Brae, Balvail, Leanaig and Alcaig.
Police are also working with the Scottish SPCA and experts from the Scottish Agricultural College on the investigation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article