A farmer from South Uist claims sea eagles are behind the disappearance of five Shetland pony foals from his hillside croft.

Donald John Cameron said they vanished without a trace over a nine-week period between May and July, and that he has often seen the birds of prey circling his animals.

Sea eagles, also known as white-tailed eagles, are known to attack livestock and farmers claim to have seen them carrying lambs away.

However, the National Centre for Birds of Prey believed it was “most unlikely” that sea eagles would be capable of flying off with a foal.

Scotland’s nature agency NatureScot said that while there was “no direct evidence” the birds were responsible, they would be “analysing prey remains from sea eagle nests” on the island.

Mr Cameron keeps the herd of ponies as part of his agritourism business, Long Island Retreats, which he runs with his partner Lindsay Robertson.

Speaking to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “We advertise our business to have pony experiences and we would expect to have foals there.

“Yes, you can lose animals but to lose five is totally out of it, and I haven’t seen or found any carcasses, so whatever is happening to them – they’re disappearing.”

Mr Cameron said it was unlikely the foals had been taken by people.

“You couldn’t rule it out, but again, would you lose five? And we’ve never had this before.”

Mr Cameron said that the behaviour of the foals’ mothers suggested the animals were taken by a predator.

“Usually, if an animal loses a calf or a foal or a lamb, they will stay with the dead animal,” he said.

Mr Cameron added that the mare of the first animal they lost “went back on her own to the area she was last with her foal”.

“She spent a lot of time sniffing the ground and when she moved away from that piece of ground, I scanned that ground very thoroughly with the dogs to see if they could pick up anything and I found nothing.”

Mr Cameron said some of the smaller foals would weigh about 10kg, the equivalent of a lamb which is four or five weeks old.

Director of the National Centre for Birds of Prey, Charlie Heap, thought it unlikely sea eagles could fly off with that size of an animal.

He said: “Like all birds, they (sea eagles) are miracles of engineering and of lightness and the largest sea eagle you’re going to find is going to be about 5kg.

“Just to give you a comparison – that’s about the size of a reasonable size house cat. They are only capable of carrying their own weight.

“Like all wild animals, they don’t want to put themselves in a position where they may end up injured.”

He added: “I have no idea what’s happening to this poor chap’s foals. I do feel his pain. I would suggest he’s looking in the wrong direction for the culprit.”

A NatureScot spokesperson said they would be inspecting sea eagle nest sites near Mr Cameron’s home as part of their work to tackle the wider problem of predation.

They added that they had previously spoken to Mr Cameron about concerns to other livestock.

The spokesperson said: “We provided advice on issues of lamb predation reported by Mr Cameron at a site visit in 2023, including a wide range of support options available through the sea eagle management scheme.

“Some of these options may be helpful in protecting both sheep and ponies.

“We have not received an application to the scheme from Mr Cameron, but we would welcome discussing this further with him.”