Predator watch

When it comes to controlling predators what matters is not the number killed but the impact on vulnerable species, says Mike Swan

With the season almost over, my thoughts are already turning to the spring predation control programme. Running a lowland wild game shoot means that protecting my nesting pheasants and partridges from predation is crucial to success. But before we set off all guns blazing, it’s good to reflect on predator-prey relationships and how they work.

In an ever more critical conservation world, being sure that your programme is both well-targeted and sustainable is essential to being able to argue your case.

The first thing to understand is that it is essential to target the real troublemakers. Most of these are what are known as generalist predators that make their living from a wide prey base. The fox is perhaps the most serious game predator on most shoots. Foxes will take a huge range of foods, from our precious pheasants and partridges to voles, rabbits, hares, worms and beetles. Add in the food scavenged from human waste and road-kill, and you have a resilient predator for which no single item on the menu is that significant.

This is a crucial point to understand and one that is widely missed by our detractors. The fact that grey partridges are not an important item of fox diet does not mean that fox predation is not an important factor in partridge population dynamics. Indeed, this insignificance of partridges to foxes is one of the reasons why the latter are such serious predators.

When grey partridges die out in a particular area the foxes carry on as normal, taking other foods and not even noticing that they have gone. On the other hand, every time a hen partridge takes to sitting still on a nest she becomes highly vulnerable to being found and scoffed by a fox.