POLICE have called for help in catching the people who severely injured a rare bird of prey near Pickering.

A dog walker rescued a red kite after it was poisoned in woodland at Cawthorn Roman Camps. It is now being cared for at Ryedale Wildlife Rehabilitation.

The bird of prey had become so rare it became the subject of the longest continuous conservation project in the world.

PC Stewart Ashton, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “Despite it being illegal to harm birds of prey, we have intelligence that people are still actively killing them in areas of Ryedale.”