During this time the red kite has become very visible to large parts of the UK population and hugely popular with the public. An amazing conservation success in just 33 years – and still with substantial scope for further population expansion and increase in range. Red kites are now thriving again in England and Scotland with the UK population estimated at 6,000 breeding pairs with 4,500-5,000 breeding pairs in England. These reintroduced birds first bred in 1992, just three years after the start of reintroduction, and their population has subsequently expanded rapidly, already recovering much of their former range. The RSPB led on the Scottish reintroduction and at a UK level the overall red kite reintroduction programme was overseen jointly with Natural England. About two hundred chicks were donated to the Chilterns and Forestry England woodlands in the East Midlands reintroduction during the 1990s.
Most of the birds that were reintroduced to England by Natural England (and its predecessors the Joint Nature Conservation Committee) came from the Navarra area in the north of Spain. From being extinct in England and Scotland, 15-17% of the world’s red kite population is now estimated to be present in the UK. The rest is history, and this initiative then developed into one of the greatest UK conservation success stories.
#RED KITE UK TRIAL#
A trial reintroduction of red kites to both England and Scotland was proposed as it was felt highly unlikely that these birds would return naturally and within a reasonable timescale.Ī jigsaw of red kite reintroductions at 9 sites across the UK began from 1989 to help bring the kite back to its former range. By the 1980s though, they were still confined to the Welsh uplands and their population was considered fragile and vulnerable to extinction. With legal protection, reduced human persecution, and thanks in particular to the dedicated efforts of enlightened conservationists and farmers, the Welsh population of red kites began to expand slowly. At the turn of the 20th century, there were just a handful of red kites in the UK, and those birds that remained were confined to remote Welsh valleys. The red kite due to its close association with humans was one of the easiest raptor species to exterminate. This amazing turn-around also involves some of the key people involved in the original England and Scotland red kite reintroduction projects.įrom the 1700s onwards red kites were killed alongside other birds of prey across the UK by game preservers and farmers, regarded as “vermin”, and 200 years of relentless human persecution followed.
Now, conservationists are delighted that the project has been so successful that red kite chicks can be supplied in return from England back to Spain to help with important efforts to conserve the species in that country.
#RED KITE UK SKIN#
In 1989, an ambitious project began to restore red kite populations in England and Scotland after they had become extinct around the 1870s, having suffered relentless human persecution by gamekeepers, skin and egg collectors.
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