Shooting Times & Country 26-Jan-2022

It was an unusual end to a brilliant day. “Want to see my pet fox?” asked Lincolnshire keeper Ben Pocklington, as he gave everyone a brace of game. We didn’t need to be asked twice. As we wandered down the hill, Jenny, the five-year-old vixen, squealed in delight. Ben opened the gate, ushered us in and gave her a duck for dinner, at which point she came and sat with us, playfully nibbling my pocket. It’s the sort of thing some would find hard to believe. ‘Keepers hate foxes’ is the standard narrative peddled, but I’ve yet to meet one who doesn’t have a lot of respect for them. Most of the public have seen foxes slipping off down a side street at dusk. But keepers spend long nights in the cold,…

A man killed in an accident on a shoot has been named by police. Brian Harwood, 73, died after a Polaris Ranger and trailer in which he was travelling fell from a bridge on a shoot in Lancashire. Police said the bridge had collapsed as the vehicle crossed it. The vehicle and trailer are understood to have been carrying members of the shoot’s beating team. A number of other people were seriously injured in the accident, which is reported to have happened around 4.30pm on 18 January during a shoot on private land near Moor Lane in Roeburndale. Police, firefighters, ambulance crews, an air ambulance and cave rescue volunteers all attended the scene. “One man died and a number of people have serious injuries” In a statement, Mr Harwood’s partner said: “Brian meant…

The bill for eradicating stoats on the Orkney Islands has topped £2,000 per animal. The RSPB-led Orkney Native Wildlife Project has been using traps and specially trained dogs in an attempt to rid the islands of the mustelids. Stoats are not native to the islands and their presence has been shown to have a negative effect on ground-nesting birds and the Orkneys’ unique vole species. In October 2018 the project was awarded £6.1 million of funding, with the National Lottery and the EU Life project both contributing. At the time, the figure was higher than the funding awarded to support the Orkneys’ lifeline network of inter-island ferries. The project immediately met with resistance from local landowners, who refused trappers access due to the RSPB’s failure to support goose management measures. Now the latest…

Humans are better than wolves at creating landscapes of fear, according to scientists. The phrase ‘landscapes of fear’ was used to describe the effects of reintroduced wolves on deer in Yellowstone National Park in the US. According to rewilding lore, the returning predators scared deer out of river valleys, which allowed scrub to thrive and made the rivers change their course. This effect is known as a trophic cascade. However, a team of Canadian and American scientists has found that deer are much more frightened of people than of any other predators. The scientists played recordings of human voices and the sounds of other animals to deer in woodland. They found that the deer reacted far more strongly to the voices of humans than to the calls of wolves, bobcats, lynx or domestic…

BIRDS With the season ending and wheat prices high, it is tempting to stop feeding birds. However, for gamebirds and wild birds, the hardest part of the year is yet to come. The hungry gap in February and March — before seeds and invertebrates begin to appear — is one of the most trying times for wildlife and one that we can all help to get them through. CHECK Putting your kit away wet, dirty or unoiled is the fastest way to ruin it. All over the country, guns are going into cabinets, coats on pegs and boots on racks. Make sure yours are put away thoroughly cleaned, thoroughly dried and thoroughly oiled. When next season rolls around, you will be glad of it.…

Cornwall Council is likely to rebuff a petition seeking to have trail hunting banned on its land following a vote on 19 January. The official result will not be announced for several weeks, but commentators suggest it is “quite clear” which way it is likely to go. Speaking against the petition, Conservative councillor David Harris said: “Trail hunting is a pursuit of all types of people and a major contributor to the rural economy.” His position was backed by independent councillor Paul Wills — “proudly wearing” a Cornish hunting tartan tie for the occasion — who said he believed in “the tradition and the right of people to carry out lawful pursuits in their everyday activities”. He asked: “If we ban lawful activities such as trial hunting on council land, do we…