We all know that the ring-necked pheasant is by far the most popular game bird for shooting in the UK. As people who take part in field sports, most of us love to participate in driven or walked-up pheasant shooting that ends in a feeling of pride in what we have achieved, contentment and ultimately a delicious meal that we have earned. 

Also, many shooters probably know that most pheasants that live on our estates, if not all, were reared on a farm and then released in order for us to shoot them. This is nothing new, as we have been rearing pheasants most likely since they were introduced to Europe by the Normans or Romans, centuries ago.

However, is the hand-rearing and releasing of our beloved bird such a good idea? Are there negative effects that we don’t know about or are just choosing to ignore?

After being locked up inside for weeks now, many may be wondering what the origin is of the situation we’re in, as this virus outbreak likely arose from a wildlife management problem.

Scientists, by and large, believe the virus originated in bats before being transmitted to humans. These infected bats were believed to have been sold at a wet market in Wuhan, China. However, no one currently knows for certain so all we can do is speculate. 

Since then, our lives have been completely changed and the world won’t be the same anymore. 

As COVID-19 is affecting people and economies worldwide, you may wonder what kind of impact this has on hunting and wildlife. 

Is there something we can do about this? 

And more importantly, what can we learn from this situation?

A short introduction and explanation of Green Capital and importantly, how it will impact you.

Guest Post written by: Ian Thomas, Chartered Forester and Chartered Environmentalist.

Hunting has always been a way of life, it has dominated the course of human evolution for millions of years and is still a way of life for many millions of people closely connected to nature and the animal world.

It is also common knowledge that our ancestors were hunter-gatherers who used tools to obtain food, however, what is less commonly known is that the laws to manage animal populations were only established much, much later when modern humans noticed that certain species had started to decline, and in some cases, disappear.

So, in light of this knowledge, what would be the consequences if we stopped hunting?

What would happen to the wildlife populations and the land they live on if, as many that are opposed to hunting, we stopped intervening?

We often talk about how to manage wildlife populations, and we’ve even discussed these topics in some length here on HAMS Blog. However, we quite often fail to fully discuss one of the most important topics: what are the requirements for having a specific type of game on our land, what are the features of the habitat they require and what should we do to get the most out of our land?

So, in this article, we are going to take a look at what habitat actually is and how important good habitat management is when managing our game populations.

A look at how the British shooting and hunting community has reacted to the recent licensing issues.