AUTHORITIES must be vigilant in enforcing new wildlife protections during this year’s grouse-shooting season, the Scottish Greens warned today.

Rural affairs spokeswoman Ariane Burgess spoke ahead of the first “Glorious Twelfth,^” as the start of the season is known to hunters, since the introduction of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act in April. 

This legislation introduced a number of key protections, including a ban on the uncontrolled burning of old vegetation on Scottish uplands, legal protections for birds of prey and a licensing system for grouse-shooting.