INVESTIGATIONS are under way after a nesting pair of hen harriers - England's rarest birds of prey - have gone missing from a North Yorkshire moorland.
Multi-agency efforts have been stepped up to prevent the harriers from becoming extinct as a breeding bird in the uplands of North Yorkshire.
The move follows the disappearance two weeks ago of the only known breeding pair of hen harriers on moorland in the Yorkshire Dales.
The nesting site had been monitored by Natural England and Yorkshire Dales Upland Bird Study Group volunteers since mid-March, and they raised the alarm when neither bird could be found.
An investigation is being carried out by PC Mark Rasbeary, a Wildlife Crime Officer from North Yorkshire Police, and Steve Downing from the National Wildlife Crime Unit based in Scotland.
They spent a full afternoon searching the moorland for signs of the birds, but all they found was the abandoned nest with five eggs inside.
"It is extremely rare for a female hen harrier to abandon her nest when she is sat on eggs because the male will provide her with food," said PC Rasbeary.
"The only logical explanation is that the birds have been deliberately disturbed and driven away from the nest. Or even worse, they have been killed."
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