Police investigating suspected poisoning of endangered white-tailed eagle in Karlovy Vary Region

An endangered female white-tailed eagle and her young have been found dead in the village of Toužim in the Karlovy Vary Region. Police are investigating the case as a suspected poisoning, since the bird was found without any external injuries, and are waiting for the results of the autopsy.

The dead female was found lying on the ground directly beneath her nest. Firefighters climbed up to the 35-metre high nest to see if there were any live young, but found only a dead few-week-old baby.

According to ornithologists, the poisoning of wild birds is a huge problem in the Czech Republic. The Czech Ornithological Society have documented and reported 139 such cases, in which 500 birds lost their lives, to the police since 2017, but they say the real number of poisonings is probably higher. Two people in the past have been sentenced in connection with poisoning birds.