Award-winning comedian, writer and actor Lord Christian Brighty (The Mr Darcy of the Internet’) has produced an entertaining video about Pheasant shooting.
This is the perfect antidote to the current hysteria from the gamebird shooting industry about how the ‘countryside is under attack’.
As Christian says, it is under attack, but not in the way the shooters would have you believe!
At the end of the video, viewers are urged to submit evidence to Defra’s Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting. Christian says the Call for Evidence closes on 6th November – it actually closes at one minute to midnight on Sunday 1st November (that’s this coming Sunday).
If you haven’t yet submitted your evidence, hopefully you’ll take inspiration from Christian’s video and you can also find some guidance on Wild Justice’s website, here.
Pheasants are leaving a detrimental effect around my garden
A brilliant sartirical video exposing the unquestioned side of shooting, could have also questioned the joke that is so called predator control on the lowland pheasant estates, shooting Foxes on these estates is the equivalence of swatting flies in your house and claiming your controlling their numbers. Foxes are territorial and produce young relative to prey density, an estate releasing 5000 Pheasants and only shooting 40% is leaving a hell of a lot of food out there that will naturally disperse away in all directions from the high density on the estate to find their own territories, Fox territories close to the estate will likely be highly successful. the estates aren’t controlling foxes they are maintaining high numbers, the only way to “control” the fox population in these circumstances would be by stopping the release of Pheasants
Interesting analysis – thanks
On a positive note; at least the pheasants that the foxes eat are free from lead shot . Very cunning !
Thank you Swaledale, hope my interpretation did not come across as me being anti Fox. I monitor a small fox population on poor territory, 2022 the area had a sudden massive increase in Rabbits, the Foxes raised 5 cubs, Mixy did the Rabbits in the Autumn and the Foxes didn’t breed again until this year, last Autumn saw a huge Acorn crop, Grey Squirrels continued having late litters and where absolutely everywhere, The Voles and Wood Mice must also have followed suit, The Foxes raised 7 cubs. this is simple predator /prey relationship. all 4 species mentioned will almost certainly decline next year, the example is just slightly more complex than the Barn Owl/Short Eared Owl verses Field Vole cyclic population explosion most people are familiar with. The shooting fraternity are obsessed with predator control, they think it is a magic wand, It does not work when putting so much food out there, Barn Owls and Short Eared will never control Vole numbers, Foxes will never control Rabbit or Grey Squirrel numbers however if you put food out for any species you can manipulate their population. these shooting Estates shoot foxes but they are not controlling them, they are merely shooting the surplus population that are unfortunate enough to be drawn into their banquet.