Police in Fife are probing the “significant” theft of eggs from nesting sites on Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth.
Three men, all of whom are understood to be from Fife, have been reported to the procurator fiscal at Kirkcaldy for wildlife offences following an investigation by officers.
No further details on what kind of eggs or how many were taken have been divulged by the force. However Constable Ian Laing, Fife’s wildlife crime co-ordinator, described it as a “very significant case” as it not only involves the theft of eggs from nesting birds but from an offshore location.
“Sea birds and other species around the Forth should be afforded protection because of the uniqueness of the habitats that attract them to places like Inchkeith, the Bass Rock and further upstream at the mudflats in the vicinity of the Kincardine/Clackmannanshire bridges,” he said.
“These detections demonstrate our determination to target those involved in damaging or destroying our natural heritage around the Forth and Tay and should serve as a warning to such individuals that the odds are increasingly stacked against them through the joint efforts of the Fife Partnership against Wildlife Crime.”
Inchkeith, which sits in the middle of the Firth of Forth between Leith and Kinghorn, is home to many native seabird species during the breeding season.
Cormorants are said to nest in a colony at the southern tip of the island, while shag nests are scattered around the island on the wider ledges of cliffs.
Puffins, gulls, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars are also known to frequent the island, which consists of mainly ruined buildings.