Shoots boost brown hares

Shooting UK is your complete shooting resource. From gun reviews to shotgun licence and firearms certificate information, to clay pigeon shooting, game shooting, shooting lessons and gundog training.

Home
News

| Next

By Alastair Balmain

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Shoots are helping to conserve the hare according to a GWCT study

A new GWCT study reveals that shoots are helping to conserve the hare, which has declined by 75 per cent since World War II. Recent conservation action for hares has focused on agri-environment schemes, but the Trust’s research suggests that habitat improvement alone will not reverse the hare’s decline. The GWCT’s Dr Jonathan Reynolds said, “It was clear that predator control was the key factor in hare population change.”

DEFRA convenes Lead Ammunition Group

Fears over a future ban on the use of all lead sho...

Keeper of the Year

Shooting Times is delighted to announce that it is...

Guns

Sabatti Mercury 870.308 Rifle

Mercury rising: the bargain Italian rifle’s stock goes up... Read more

Sporting Answers

Can I legally shoot dogs destroying my animals?

My neighbour's dogs are persistently chasing and killing my valua... Read more

News

DNA could convict poachers

New research into tackling wildlife crimes... Read more

Comments

Rodney Hale

Sun, 28th Mar 2010 13:50:26

The claim that shoots boost hare numbers through predator control is pure hypocrisy from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. Like all animals at the top of their food chain the fox, which is the hare's main predator, self-regulates its population according to the food supply and available territory. So it is no surprise that the breeding of 35 million pheasants annually in Britain to be shot for fun is accompanied by burgeoning fox numbers, particularly on shooting estates. Hares and their natural predators have co-existed perfectly well for thousands, if not millions of years without interference from man. A ban on shooting for "sport" would go a long way towards restoring that balance of nature. It would also virtually eliminate the 8,000 tonnes of contaminating lead shot discharged into the environment annually.

What's in this issue?

Don't miss this week's issue (on sale Wednesday 16th May). FREE PRIZE DRAW: Win a Browning T-bolt.22 and Winchester ammo. Graham Downing gives his tips on where to find the best foreign sport! For all this and a whole lot more buy your copy today!