A Moray farmer who has lost dozens of lambs to “vicious” ravens this spring has called for a rethink on the protected status of the birds.
Alastair Nairn wants farmers to be allowed to do more to protect their livestock from the powerful birds, which attack lambs and calves before leaving them for dead.
His comments come just days after the National Sheep Association backed a campaign calling for ravens to be added to the list of birds that can be shot under a general licence to protect livestock.
Nearly 2,500 people have signed the online petition, started by Danny Bisset, of Thurso, which calls for Scottish Natural Heritage to make the change when it considers the licences awarded to farmers next year.
Mr Nairn, of Glenlivet, has already lost dozens of young sheep this year.
He said: “They are absolutely vicious. It’s getting worse all the time as there are more and more of the birds. They are endemic now.
“They are protected, but it has got completely out of hand. You can get licences to shoot them but you’re only allowed to scare them.
“Hundreds of them sit there watching you in the trees and as soon as you turn your back they are in there killing lambs again. They’re clever.”
The farmer, who said some of the birds he had spotted swooping on his livestock had wingspans of 3ft, added something needed to be done to tackle the increasing raven population.
“What they need to start doing is reducing the number of birds, big style,” he said. “You can start destroying the nests so you don’t get so many of them.
“You can’t get near enough to them to shoot them when they’re older.”
NFU Scotland is due to meet SNH this week to discuss the problem. Some farmers and crofters have even moved indoors this year in an attempt to protect the young animals from being killed by the birds.
The union reported that the number of licences issued to tackle the birds doubled to 122 between 2013 and 2015.
NFU Scotland’s deputy director of policy, Andrew Bauer, said last night: “In recent weeks there has been some graphic footage and photographs of the dreadful impact that ravens can have on young lambs, and in some cases, calves.
“Sadly, raven predation isn’t a new problem but around the country there are reports from some farmers and crofters that they see the raven population increasing in size and range.
“Raven predation has serious animal welfare implications, causes huge emotional distress to the livestock keepers and has a financial impact on the business.”
Thurso farmer Selena Swanson has been finding up to 10 dead lambs a day and estimates she has lost over £5,000 so far this year.
Backing the campaign to allow farmers to shoot the birds when they attack during lambing season, she said: “You always expect to lose some of the weaker ones but they are going for healthy ones now.
“It’s like a game of tag for them. One goes to distract the mother then one, two or three ravens attack the lambs and start playing with the tails.
“If they were doing it for food they would eat the whole lamb but they’re not.”