OLD country habits die hard. John McPartlan says it is nothing new for country folk to resort to poison to control pests. Lacing a dead rabbit or pigeon with insecticide and then leaving it for scavengers such as foxes and crows has been going on for years.

But that doesn't make it legal. And with the countryside being opened up more and more as a place we all want to use for recreation, it is a practise that is going to have to stop.

The problem with poisoning, says John - North Yorkshire Police's wildlife liaison officer - is that it's indiscriminate. It doesn't just kill the 'vermin' species - foxes, crows, magpies - it's aimed at, but other wildlife too.

That has become spectacularly apparent over the last couple of years as the death toll among Yorkshire's newly reintroduced population of red kites has risen.

The great birds of prey, with their long, forked tails and five foot wingspan, were once common across much of Britain, including Yorkshire. But after being declared 'vermin' in the 16th century, they were persecuted to the point of extinction.

The last red kites disappeared from Yorkshire about 150 years ago, and only in rural mid Wales did the magnificent birds manage to hang on in Britain, their numbers reduced to just a few pairs.

Then, back in the late 1980s, moves began to reintroduce them to other parts of Britain: first the Chilterns in southern England, then the Midlands.

By 1999, a project had begun in Yorkshire. That year, 21 birds were released from holding pens at the Harewood estate near Leeds, and a further 19 the following year. Foot and Mouth scuppered plans for more releases last year, but so far this year a further 17 birds have been released.

They have begun to spread, with sightings in Ryedale and East Yorkshire, and a number of chicks have also been spotted, meaning the birds are breeding successfully.

But already the fledgling Yorkshire population is threatened. The first red kite to die of poisoning was found two years ago. Since then post mortems on five more birds have revealed they, too, were poisoned.

It is extremely unlikely the poison was intended to kill the kites. There is no reason, stresses Doug Simpson, the Yorkshire Red Kite Project Officer, why anybody would want to kill the beautiful birds.

They may have been considered 'vermin' in the past, but actually they pose no threat to livestock or game populations, being mainly scavengers who feed on carrion or small animals.

"They are not pests," Doug stresses.

It is the kites' bad luck, however, that precisely because they are scavengers, they are likely to feed off poisoned bait - often dead rabbits or pigeons - left for the creatures some in the countryside do regard as vermin.

So far, just 57 kites have been released in Yorkshire, which makes the loss of six birds to poisoning a heavy blow. It is, points out PC McPartlan, something like 10 per cent of the county's population.

That's not an immediate threat to the viability of the population in Yorkshire - but it certainly doesn't help. Two of the dead birds, Doug Simpson says, were a breeding pair - which means the chicks they would have produced have been lost too.

The real worry, however, is the fact that red kites are sociable birds, who sometimes feed together.

If a group of five or six fed off the same poisoned bait and all died together, it could have a real effect, Doug says.

But even that isn't what has got custodians of the countryside like John McPartlan really worried. The real fear is that the red kites could be just the tip of the iceberg.

We know exactly how many red kites in the region have been poisoned, because all the birds released, and most of the new chicks born, have been electronically 'tagged'.

Their movements are logged - and when they stop moving for a long period of time, Doug Simpson knows something must be wrong.

It is he who goes out to see what the problem is - and who discovers the bodies. He has found them at various sites across the uplands north of Harrogate, in an area spanning Otley, Pately Bridge and Nidderdale. One was found with the remains of a poisoned dead rabbit it had been feeding on.

Others were found dead under trees where they had presumably gone to perch after feeding, before falling to the ground as the poison took effect.

What John McPartlan worries about is that if ten per cent of the area's red kite population has been poisoned, does that mean ten per cent of other wildlife predator populations are being killed off as well?

Because they are not being electronically monitored, we would never know. But there have been other poisoned carcasses found - a kestrel among them - and recently a gun dog died after picking up poisoned bait.

"Are we losing ten per cent of wildlife up there? Heaven forbid that we are!" says John. Even that possibility, however, isn't what really makes him break out in a cold sweat.

Most of the red kites died from consuming bait 'laced' with the insecticide aldecarb or the poison alphachloralose. Both are licensed for use in certain conditions, although use of either to kill wildlife such as red kites is totally illegal, stresses Dr Helen MacVicker, a Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) wildlife management adviser based in Leeds.

What has got John and Doug most worried, however, is that one of the dead birds had been poisoned with a massive dose of strychnine.

It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to work out what the possible consequences of that could be.

With the countryside opening up under new right to roam legislation, families are likely to be out and about. Pets could be at risk - and worse. "Think of the scenario of a family out for a walk, and little Johnny saying 'mum, I've found something'," John says. "Mum says 'throw it away and come and eat your sandwich'. What was it he had in his hand? Strychnine is a nasty thing. We're looking at the possibility of a casualty in hospital." And, in the worst case, a manslaughter charge.

That is why the police and other countryside agencies are taking it so seriously. The police, the RSPB, DEFRA, the Country Landowners Association and others have launched a major drive to clamp down on the poisoners.

They are relying on information from people who know those responsible. But all the evidence is, says John, that the tide of opinion is with them and against the poisoners. Already information is coming in - and from it, John has been able to work out that there is not just one poisoner at work, but probably two or three.

The search is closing in, and the writing is on the wall. Not, hopefully, for Yorkshire's red kites: but for those who still think it is OK to poison them.

Anyone with information about the poisonings can contact PC McPartlan on 01423 539452.

Updated: 11:14 Tuesday, August 20, 2002