Two chicks fathered by lockdown star Louis the osprey are to be flown from Scotland to Spain amid fears for his wellbeing.
The Woodland Trust has taken the “tough” decision to remove the chicks from their nest at Loch Arkaig Pine Forest due to their being “something wrong” with their father who seems to be struggling to provide them with food.
The wildlife charity said the rate at which Louis has been fishing is not enough to give the chicks a reasonable chance of survival.
They said that at least one of the chicks would have died already had there not been supplementary feeding provided for them.
The chicks will now be removed from the nest to be taken to a specialised aviary in Inverness where they will be hand fed and tested for avian flu.
They will then be handed on to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to be translocated to Spain with ten other chicks from Scotland.
A Woodland Trust spokesperson said the chicks’ best chance of survival would be in Spain.
They explained: “There seems to be something wrong with Louis, possibly compounded by poor fishing conditions.
“The rate at which he has been fishing is just not enough to give the chicks a reasonable chance of survival. Even if they struggled through to the end of the summer it is felt very unlikely they would survive migration, which calls for considerable reserves of energy.
“Having kept the situation under review again today it has been decided that the chicks will be removed from the nest and handed on to the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to be translocated to Spain.
“This programme was already planned and in motion and it has been incredibly fortuitous that the timing fits with the emergence of our crisis on the nest at Arkaig.
“There is something not right with Louis and we cannot have confidence he will return to form in time to stop the chicks from perishing.
“The window of opportunity to enter the chicks in this translocation is brief and we did not want to be in the position of hanging on longer to see if the situation improved for our family. By removing them we hopefully take the pressure off the adults and allow them to replenish themselves in the coming weeks.
“Continuing to feed them ourselves at Loch Arkaig is just not a feasible option. There are risks every time we go in. If the family is not viable on its own efforts its best the chicks get a chance in Spain.”
Louis became a star of lockdown through a live nest camera that was set up at Loch Arkaig Pine Forest in Lochaber in 2017.
It became a hit during the first lockdown, clocking up 400,000 views worldwide in 2020.
The osprey’s fans were delighted after he touched down early for his eighth nesting season at the site.
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