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.
Denne historien er fra January 22, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
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Denne historien er fra January 22, 2020-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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United we stand
Following United Utilities' decision to end grouse shooting on its land, Lindsay Waddell asks what will happen if we ignore our vital moors
Serious matters
An old gamebook prompts a contemplation on punt-gunning
They're not always as easy as they seem
While coneys of the furry variety don't pose a problem for Blue Zulu, he's left frustrated once again by bolting bunnies of the clay sort
Debutant gundogs
There's lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting
When the going gets rough
Al Gabriel returns to the West London Shooting School to brush up on his rough shooting technique
The Field Guide To British Deer - BDS 60th Anniversary Edition
In this excerpt from the 60th anniversary edition of the BDS's Field Guide To British Deer, Charles Smith-Jones considers the noise they make
A step too far?
Simon Garnham wonders whether a new dog, a new gun and two different fields in need of protection might have been asking too much for one afternoon's work
Two bucks before breakfast
A journey from old South London to rural Hertfordshire to stalk muntjac suggests that the two aren't as far detached as they might seem
Stalking Diary
Stalkers can be a sentimental bunch, and they often carry a huge attachment to their hill
Gamekeeper
Alan Edwards believes unique, private experiences can help keepers become more competent and passionate custodians of the countryside