SCOTTISH ministers are coming under pressure to bring in licensing for grouse moors sooner rather than later.

On Monday, Police Scotland confirmed that a one-year-old satellite-tagged sea eagle had died on a grouse moor in Aberdeenshire after eating an illegal poison.

Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment Minister Mairi Gougeon said she was “disgusted and angered” by the “barbaric” killing of the raptor.

Ian Thomson from the RSPB described the young bird as “the latest victim of a widespread, relentless and systematic campaign of shameful persecution of raptors in this area”.

Last year, the much-delayed Scottish Government-commissioned Werrity Report into grouse moor management said estates should be licensed if they couldn’t demonstrate a reduction in illegal raptor persecution over the next five years.

Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell said the death of the sea eagle showed that Scotland’s birds of prey couldn’t wait another five years.

He said: “This is a very serious crime against a species re-introduced into Scotland 40 years ago after it became extinct.

READ MORE: Police investigate after rare sea eagle poisoned on Donside grouse moor

“Sadly, this is only the latest in a long list of raptors found dead near Scotland’s grouse moors and I’m afraid recent tweaks to wildlife crime maximum sentences fail to address the central problem around detection and prosecution of these crimes. There needs to be real action to address this war against wildlife.

“Land managers need to get a grip of this, but we’ve seen from the reaction to the Scottish Greens’s win on protection for mountain hares that the driven grouse shooting industry is resistant to even the mildest of reforms.

“It’s time for the Scottish Government to ignore vested interests and respond to the Werrity review with a commitment to shut grouse moors down. The stark reality is Scotland is monumentally failing to meet its obligations in the middle of a global nature emergency.”

Both Nicola Sturgeon and Gougeon have indicated that a licensing scheme could be brought in earlier than the five-year timeframe suggested by the report. Gougeon said: “I am disgusted and angered by the poisoning of this young, rare sea eagle and condemn, in the strongest possible terms, any crime carried out against our wildlife.

“Any illegal killing of birds of prey is completely unacceptable, but poisoning is particularly barbaric and something we had hoped was consigned to the past.

“I’d ask anybody who has any information about this incident to report it to the police.

“The Animals and Wildlife Act, which I took through Parliament and has just become law, increases the maximum penalties for the worst types of animal cruelty and wildlife crime, including the illegal killing of birds of prey, to five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.”