National Gamebag Census: summary bird trends

A detailed analysis of gamebird bags was carried out in the early 1990s by Stephen Tapper, with the financial support of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The results were reported in Game Heritage: An Ecological Review from Shooting and Gamekeeping Records, published by Game Conservancy Ltd in 1992.

The trends in national bags presented in the figures are based on the annual numbers of each quarry species killed per 100 ha (250 acres), averaged across all estates contributing in a given year. The error bars around each data point represent 95% confidence limits, and give an idea of the accuracy of the point (the smaller the range that they delimit, the more accurate the plotted value). The histograms in the figures for grey partridge, red-legged partridge and pheasant give the annual numbers of birds released each autumn per 100 ha. They are plotted on the same scale as the bag data.