Lambing season horror as ravens kill 200 sheep (2024)

A surge in raven attacks during lambing season has left one farmer distraught after the loss of more than 200 lambs.

Finn Yorston, 45, said he considered quitting his lifelong career on the day he picked up 30 dead lambs who had been pecked to death by the birds.

Ravens have killed 220 of his lambs on Balnabroich Farm, in Strathardle, and five ewes had to be destroyed after they were attacked.

He told The Times: “I have been a shepherd for 30 years and this was the worst lambing I have ever experienced. I walked into the big house on the day we lost 30 lambs and said ‘Do something, or I’ll quit.’”

Ravens, a member of the crow family, are the largest of the many species of corvid found across the world. Estimates suggest that there are between 2,500 and 6,000 breeding pairs of ravens in Scotland, with most found in the west and the Northern Isles.

They are highly opportunistic animals, and are regarded as being among the most intelligent of all birds, meaning they learn quickly about food sources to exploit. According to NatureScot, the Scottish government nature agency, ravens have a habit of feeding in large flocks, allowing them to easily tackle potential prey much larger than themselves.

Farmers lose lambs to raven attacks every season, but this year Yorston says there has been a surge in vicious attacks from an increasing population of the predators.

In one particularly horrific scene, a raven sat on the back of a lambing ewe while ripping open her belly. The ewe could not be saved, Yorston said.

The attacks have had a “huge effect” on the shepherd, who said he will now mistake lumps of wool for another dead lamb. “It is the only time in my life I nearly quit. I was born and bred on a hill and I think I am pretty tough, but it has been heartbreaking,” he said.

The shepherd recalled long nights spent helping to save a lamb from a ewe who was struggling with the birth, only to find that a raven had taken the helpless newborn the next day.

Yorston would make a trip around the farm to “pick up the mess” before the other young shepherd, 16-year-old Robbie, saw the massacre. It was Robbie’s first lambing season, Yorston explained. “The poor lad. He did so well, I was proud of him. But you could see every day that he didn’t want to go out.”

Yorston said the farm calculated financial loss to be in the region of £30,000 to £40,000, which includes the cost of losing the lambs and the money spent on trying to rid the farm of the ravens.

“I would be up at first light every day with the young lad [Robbie], and we would spread across the three flocks to try and protect them. The gamekeeper, boss, landowner all got involved,” Yorston said.

Even working together, they could not protect their lambs from the birds, which were more numerous this year. The gamekeeper counted 84 separate ravens on the farm, while one group of 60 banded together in a mob for their onslaught.

NatureScot initially gave the farm permission to kill four of the birds, which was later increased to nine. Ravens are protected under the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act, meaning a licence must be sought to dispatch them.

Mike Nairn, Balnabroich Farm’s manager, said while NatureScot responded “quickly and helpfully” with the licence to kill, it had little effect given the size of the flock, and the attacks continued.

Nairn told The Scottish Farmer: “We have observed a significant increase in the raven population at Balnabroich Farm in recent years … they seriously threaten the viability of an upland sheep farming enterprise as well as causing multiple distressing instances of cruelty to the sheep flock.”

Balnabroich Farm is now selling 500 sheep, as they “stand no chance” if the ravens return, and the farm needs time to recover.

Yorston said: “We are going on a hiatus now and will just run two flocks. Next year we want to get it right so will try to do lambing a month later next year to be in line with the neighbours. It will take us five years to get the farm back to what we had.”

This “safety in numbers” approach is all the farm currently has, given that ravens are a protected species. The farm hopes it can “starve them out” next year.

They also are a hard species to kill — it can take two days to shoot just two ravens. “If a raven spots where a shot came from, they will circle over the gamekeeper screaming,” Yorston said.

Mules are most vulnerable to ravens, as they are a “slower, bigger and dopier” sheep breed, Yorston said. The hardy hill breeds, such as Lleyn and Blackface sheep, can defend themselves more, and Yorston recalls seeing one of the latter charging at a raven and “clobbering” it.

“They are really clever, that is the problem. They band together in groups of threes. One of them will swoop down to attack a lamb, and when the ewe goes to defend that one the other two ravens will go after the lambs’ twin,” he said.

Yorston is now considering spending money on livestock guardian dogs, which cost about £9,000. “It is a big thing, but I can’t do another year like this. I would give up all the money to not have that happen,” he said.

A NatureScot spokeswoman told The Scottish Farmer: “We recognise the damage that ravens can cause to livestock and the impact this has on farmers. We issue licences to control ravens to those who are suffering or likely to suffer serious damage to their livestock where there is no other satisfactory solution. These licences permit the shooting of some of the birds that are causing the damage, with the aim of removing problem birds and deterring other ravens.

“In this case we issued a licence to the farm swiftly after they contacted us about the damage to their livestock from ravens. Should there be a need to increase the number of birds licensed we would encourage them to contact our licensing team to make that request.”

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