Let’s achieve a world-first together

This ambitious project is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, NatureScot and Orkney Islands Council. Thanks to generous supporters like you, along with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, EU Life, and the Nature Restoration Fund, the Orkney Native Wildlife Project is helping to conserve the islands’ natural heritage by aiming to eradicate an invasive, non-native species: the Stoat.

Just 10 miles off the north coast of Scotland’s mainland lies Orkney, an archipelago made up of roughly 70 islands. The absence of mammalian predators such as foxes, badgers and weasels has made it a haven for special and endangered ground-nesting birds and other animals.

Despite making up just 0.4% of the UK’s land area, the Orkney Islands are home to a huge proportion of some of our most vulnerable species, including 11% of the UK’s breeding seabirds, 20% of Hen Harriers and more than 33% of Arctic Skua and Great Skua. 

In the wider UK landscape, these species are suffering from severe declines as a result of habitat loss, lack of food sources and persecution. The remote islands of Orkney have long offered a refuge for these scarce species. But a newly emerged threat is putting this spectacular array of wildlife at risk.

In 2010, the first Stoat was reported on the Orkney Islands, and since then, this fast breeding, non-native species has taken a hold across these precious habitats. While Stoats might not be an unusual sight across the rest of the UK, they pose a serious threat to Orkney’s wildlife, which is not adapted to living alongside them.

Likely to have been accidentally introduced by people, Stoats have no natural predators on the islands. Combined with their fast breeding, this means that without intervention their population has the potential to continue growing rapidly, requiring an ever-increasing need for food. Their preferred diet of readily available mammals, birds and their eggs puts much of Orkney’s wildlife at immediate risk.

Along with threatening ground-nesting birds like Curlews and Puffins, Stoats are a risk to the Orkney Vole. The Orkney Vole is not found anywhere else in the world and provides an important food source for the islands’ Hen Harriers. This increased predator pressure creates competition for a species already on the brink.

Orkney’s community is dependent on its nature and beauty, with its economy buoyed by ecotourism. The impacts of Stoats could have a devastating effect on both its wildlife and its people.

Together with our partners, we have launched a dedicated invasive species eradication project on the islands to protect Orkney’s unique wildlife and help support its community. The Orkney Native Wildlife Project is a world-first; it’s not only the first Stoat eradication programme in the northern hemisphere, but it is also the largest globally to date.

Covering an area of 58,000ha (equivalent to more than 81,000 football pitches), the project employs over 45 people, has benefited from over 15,000 hours of volunteer time, and involves the use of Europe’s first Stoat detection conservation dog team.

Having already removed more than 6,000 Stoats from Orkney, monitoring suggests that the overall population is already much reduced.

While this is an incredible achievement, we need your help as the project reaches its final phase of eradication. This period is critical. If the eradication ends prematurely, any number of remaining Stoats could quickly re-establish the population and render the work ineffective. The project needs to have the resources to locate and remove every remaining stoat and search the islands to confirm success.

With your donations, we can help protect Orkney's unique wildlife now, and for future generations.

Donate now