shooting D L

Making a Killing E I F R E T

Grouse are classed as gamebirds and around half T U B

a million are killed every year in Britain for ‘sport’. R E G

The start of the grouse shooting season – known O R

as ‘The ’ by the bloodsports lobby – © is 12 August. The season ends on 10 December in mainland Britain (and 30 November in Northern ). The ‘sport’ is an expensive indulgence for wealthy estate owners, who receive £150 for every pair of shot down on the moors of and northern .1 Grouse are said to be good sport because they fly low and are relatively difficult to kill cleanly. However, no training or proof of shooting competence is necessary to go grouse shooting. The Guns are placed in butts (a hide for shooting, screened by a turf or stone wall) and the birds are driven towards them by beaters. Grouse shooting can also be undertaken by ‘walking up’ grouse over pointers, or by flushing the birds with other dogs. This traditional method of shooting birds was largely supplanted by formal driven shooting in the mid to late 1800s, although the older practice is talk of songbirds and waders as if they are more reported to be regaining popularity. It is also said valuable than other creatures who share the 6

4 that is the only commercially same habitat, and who gamekeepers persecute. 5 viable means of running a grouse moor. 4 Then there is the assault on the landscape. The 6 There are about 500 grouse moors in the United 3 upland moors are our equivalent of the South

2 Kingdom covering 1.5m hectares. These moors American rainforests for storing and absorbing 3 range from Wales and Derbyshire in the South to 4 7 carbon . The heather is burned by those who 1 the highlands of Scotland in the North. An average

0 manage the moors to encourage new shoots, : l size moor is 2,000 hectares, while the smallest is which the grouse thrive on. But this releases e t 200 hectares and the largest,10,000. massive quantities of global-warming carbon, • the equivalent of a tenth of British industry’s total k u . Wildlife and the Environment emissions. g r The intensively-managed landscape is an ideal o . Writing about grouse moors in August 2007, breeding ground for heather beetles. Once hatched, d i Alastair Balmain, Deputy Editor of Shooting Times, a they eat the young heather shoots and damage the l a commented: “While it may look wild, natural and stems, causing the heather to wither and die. The m i free, it isn’t. Our upland areas are amongst the speed with which they can destroy vast areas of n 2

a most intensively managed landscapes around …”

. heather is a concern to gamekeepers who are only w Proponents of shooting claim that their activities interested in populating the with grouse w help the environment. The reality is that they ahead of 12 August. There have been complaints in w construct an artificial heather-rich landscape and the shooting press of an infestation of the beetle, persecute any who dare to interfere with together with calls for public funding to remedy their ‘sport’. shooting’s self-inflicted problem. e They use euphemisms like ‘control’ and l ‘management’ for the killing of vast numbers of i foxes, stoats, weasels and squirrels. And, even Disease f though raptors are legally protected, hawks, falcons, It is true that some ground-nesting birds do well in t owls, hen harriers and even eagles are trapped, this abused landscape. But in such an environment, poisoned or shot, or their nests are destroyed. the grouse population goes through a cycle of boom 3 Pro-shooting lobbyists – such as Teresa Dent , and collapse. It is the moor ‘management’ that c Chief Executive of the Conservancy Trust disrupts the natural balance of predators to the (now appealingly renamed the Game and Wildlife predated. With fewer predators and so much a Conservation Trust) – attempt to justify their heather to feed on and shelter in, numbers increase practices by playing the conservation card. They

f to a level the moors cannot support. The birds then factfile www.animalaid.org.uk • tel: 01732 364546 currently only5,100Britishmalebirds. trees. Thechicksdepend upon adietofinsects. buds andflowersofmanyshrubs,hedges Their varieddietincludesseeds,berries,shoots, and Julythebirds haveonlyonebrood ayear. pine needlesandgrass.Eggsare laidbetweenApril hollow scoopintheearthandlineitsparselywith The birds are ground nesting.Theymakeashallow rearing theyoung. female, buttakenopartinincubatingeggsor to achievethebestchanceofbeingselectedbya Characteristics ofGrouse w grit –containinganthelminthicdrugstocombat for thetable.Butgrouse are treated withmedicated a Grouse cannotbesuccessfullybred incaptivity, and and numberscrash. fall prey toafatalgutparasite,calledStrongylosis, Scotland, W seven yearsand occupiesWesternregions of white underbelly. Grouse livesforupto TheWillow body, blacktailandwhitewingsdistinctive Grouse hasareddishsummer theWillow brown (except forablacktail)byboth sexesinwinter. In Grouse apartfrom the adoptionofall-whiteplumage the RedGrouse descends,andissimilartotheRed Grouse is the parentThe Willow speciesfrom whom (also knownasW W appr disturbed andthemalesflyoff atlong-rangeif vantage sitesnearby. However, theyare easily the r display sites),themalessimulatefightstoimpress upland areas ofWales. Attheleks(theSpring and mostofScotland,thePenninemoors clearings andontheedgesofmoorlandinBritain The BlackGrouse isrelatively largeandlivesinforest Black Gr in colour The r Red Gr Types ofGrouse l exhibit ritualisedsocialbehaviourtypifiedbythe moors ormountaintops.Severaltypesofgrouse l Grouse typicallyhavefeathered legsandfeet Amber –underthreat –ConservationStatus. f who are foundonlyintheBritishIsles,are themost Five speciesofgrouse populateBritain.RedGrouse, after hatching. is short.Two outofthree willnotsurviveayear and ExmoorinEngland.ThelifeofaRedGr over Ir little intheirlives.RedGrouse canbefoundall of thenorthandwestUKtravelvery hook-tipped bill.Theybr ekking ive indemandingconditions,suchasbleakheather avoured for‘sport’shooting,despitehavingRSPB re marketedasup-market,free-range, wildbirds orm parasites. illow Gr eclusive females,whowatchfr oached. Theyar ed gr eland, theScottishPennines,andDartmoor o ouse , f ouse with aplumpbody, shorttailandalightly the BlackGrouse. Males‘display’inorder ouse ismedium-sized,r ouse ales and Ir illow Ptarmigan e eland. vulnerable, andther eed andliveintheuplands eddish-br om hidden ) e own ouse are 1,980 winteringbir Caper is Scottish peaksandextrememoors,it northern tails. ThePtarmiganisfoundonlyonthehighest summer. Grouse, theyhaveblack LiketheWillow grey, saltandpepperplumageontheupperbodyin years. Theyare completelywhiteinwinter, andhave Grouse andcanliveforuptoseven of theWillow The Ptarmiganisasmaller, more delicateversion Ptarmigan defenceless birds. money togoshootingcangainpleasure from killing moors are managedsothatthosewithenough ‘conservation’, butthebottomlineisthatgrouse attempts tojustifyitsactivitiesbytalkingabout illegally –persecuted.Thepro-shooting lobby as athreat tothegrouse populationislegally–and thrive intheseconditions,butanyspeciesregarded environment. Somespeciesofwildlifemayalso the processesmoorsdamages ofburning provide suitablebreeding conditionsforgrouse, moors are farfrom natural,andwhilsttheymay But thereality isthatthese intensively-managed and thelandscapewouldsuffer anddeteriorate. efforts ofthosewho‘manage’ themoors,wildlife is beneficialtotheenvironment andthatwithoutthe The proponents ofshooting arguethattheir‘sport’ Government-Approved Bloodsport an RSPB‘RedList’species.Ther second time)atveryreal risk ofextinctionandis population hasdeclinedsorapidlythatitis(forthe and canliveforupto10years.TheUKCapercaillie birds inhabitforests, Scotland, mainlyinNorthern disturbance andtypicallyshysecretive. The The largestgrouse, theCapercaillie, issensitiveto estimated thatthere are 10,000UKbreeding pairs. References 4. Fred Pearce, NewScientist,12August2006 4. Daily Telegraph,3. 12August2006 2. ShootingT 1. www fire-411456.html caillie .independent.co.uk/envir imes, 23August2007 ds. onment/gr e ar ouse-moors-under e fewer than -

© ROGER BUTTERFIELD