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Experts gather for North of England Grouse Seminar

By Dr Jennifer Brewin, GWCT Writer and Research Specialist This week saw the 12th North of England Grouse Seminar in Harrogate, run by the GWCT’s Uplands Research Team. A welcome sunny relief from the winter’s wet weather met the delegates and set a positive tone for the day. Having moved to a la...

The future of grouse shooting to be debated in parliament on 21 June

2 minute read On Monday 21 June politicians will be debating a petition launched by Chris Packham, Ruth Tingay and Mark Avery of Wild Justice, titled ‘Ban Driven Grouse Shooting - Wilful blindness is no longer an option.’ If you’re getting déjà vu, don’t worry. The same thing happened in October...

Predation control – a balanced policy

By Mike Swan, GWCT Head of Education (This article first appeared in Shooting Times) 5 minute read With the shooting season now over, the first signs of breeding are already upon us. Cock pheasants have their wattles and ear tufts up as they strut their stuff in front of the hens, grey partridge...

The future of driven grouse shooting?

By Dr. Jen Brewin, Writer and Research Specialist Ahead of the debate taking place on 25th January in Westminster on the future of driven grouse shooting in England, the GWCT have prepared a series of four information sheets on key issues that are the main areas of disagreement on this contentio...

Rewilding grouse moors not the answer: our letter to The Spectator

A corvid control plan for 2021

By Mike Swan, GWCT Head of Education With the season all but over, my mind, as usual, turns to planning for 2021/22. In just a few weeks the pheasants will be setting up their territories, strutting their stuff, and doing everything they can to keep their harems together. Meanwhile, the corvids ...

New Mycoplasma Vaccine Shown to Reduce Impact of the Disease

By Dr Ellis Draaijer DVM, Poultry Business Development Manager, Kernfarm It is widely known that Mycoplasma gallisepticum (Mg) is one of the most prevalent diseases that affects gamebirds. Once a flock is infected, no treatment can free that flock from it completely, and the disease can flare up...

A Predation Control Plan for the Shoot

By Mike Swan, GWCT Head of Education Lets start by noting the words Predation Control rather than predator. In managing game and wildlife, how many predators you kill is of no great relevance; rather it is the predation that you prevent that matters. As a consequence, shooting odd random predato...

An update on Red Grouse Prospects for 2023, by Dr. Nick Hesford (Advisory Team, Scotland)

Photo: Laurie Campbell This Saturday marks the opening of the grouse shooting season, but for many Scottish moors the Twelfth of August 2023 is set to be far from ‘Glorious’.   Annual counts are essential for determining whether there is a harvestable surplus of birds, and when it comes to count...

Are the golden years of grouse over?

Written by Dave Baines, Director of Upland Research 4 Minute Read In the summer issue of Gamewise (written in early May), I predicted that this year was likely to be a difficult one for red grouse across the moors of northern England. The likely causative agents were poor quality heather as food...