Bob Elliot has had a long and illustrious career in conservation, working for a number of organisations including the National Trust for Scotland and the RSPB where he became a renowned Investigations Officer, a role he is rightly immensely proud of and where he recounts one of the first calls he ever received was from a member of the public who described seeing two large birds of prey lying dead on a grouse moor in northern Scotland.
As the Head of Investigations for the RSPB Bob went back onto grouse moors looking for dead birds of prey many times. He’s seen first hand the war being waged on our birds of prey and many of us in his position might have become embittered – tightly wound and unapproachable even – but as anyone who knows him will attest, Bob Elliot is an extremely genial, friendly and approachable man – unless, of course, you’re standing over a dead raptor with a bottle of carbofuran in your tweed jacket.
In the middle of last year Bob announced that he was leaving the RSPB to take up the role of Director of OneKind, a campaigning animal welfare charity based in Edinburgh. When I bumped into Bob at the People’s Walk for Wildlife in London in September I asked if we could talk for a podcast. ‘Let me get my feet under the table first’ he – quite understandably – replied, but just a few months later here we are, preparing to discuss wildlife crime investigation, golden eagles, the trophy hunting of goats in Scotland, Mountain Hares, OneKind, and what it’s like to move from Sandy to Scotland. Only as Bob explains in answer to that particular question, he’s actually been in Scotland this whole time…
• OneKind(external link)
• Revive Coalition(external link)
• RSPB(external link)