There is no doubt country sports polarise opinion and whilst it is not the job of this blogger to persuade you either way, like so many things in life perhaps the solution lies in making an informed opinion based on published research. For example, ecological research undertaken by our undergraduates and presented at the British Ecological Society Winter Meeting at the University of Birmingham showed that supplementary feeding from pheasant hoppers attracted a great number of birds on the 'Birds of Conservation Concern' list - particularly on small farm shoots. Even badgers were attracted to the hoppers, as the camera trap 'still' testifies below.
Indeed, it seems that there might be other benefits associated with managing the countryside for game species, and some lie alongside the health and well-being and 'natural capital' agendas. Moreover, a future research project is tabled to provide an unbiased and balanced view of the social and environmental impacts linked to driven game shoots - you can read a hot off the press blog post on the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) blog page
here.
Check back to the blog from time to time to see news updates on this and other research we are taking aim at currently!
