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 partridges are firmly paired, and the redlegs likewise, although their more ‘continental’ approach will not prevent the odd cock from running a second establishment if he can!
Preoccupation with territorial behaviour and in the case of partridges the split from coveys to pairs, makes our game that bit more susceptible to predation compared to autumn and winter. For partridges the change from multiple eyes on the lookout to just two pairs makes ambush that much easier for stalking foxes. In a few weeks, incubating hens will be more vulnerable still. So, those who hope for a significant contribution from wild bred game should be making a start on the spring predation control programme.
What is most important?
I am often asked this question, but in truth there is no easy answer. While foxes are likely to be enemy number one for most, targeting them alone is unlikely to take you very far. Any extra production will probably be mopped up by other predators. The truth is we need to take a more integrated approach; GWCT predation control research has repeatedly shown a dramatic effect where keepers control foxes, corvids and small mammal predators like rats and stoats at the same time. So, lets look at these four in turn.
Foxes
It is not until you start investigating fox diet that you realise just how versatile these beasts are. They do not just knobble the weak and sickly; in winter especially, fit and healthy animals up to the size of hares and pheasants are also vulnerable, as are your newly paired partridges. So, although nesting time is the key period for control, an early start is not a waste of effort.
At home we shoot some of our foxes, both as an incidental to deer control activities, and at night, but the majority are caught in wires. For a wild farmland game project like ours, the modern humane cable restraint is crucial to success. Once the crops start to grow in the spring, it becomes a matter of pure luck if you see a fox, leave alone shoot one. Modern cable restraints, on the other hand, used in accordance with the current code of best practice, give me a very effective, humane and target specific way of tackling fox numbers at the time when the ground nesting birds are most vulnerable.
Corvids
Members of the crow family can impact a shoot in at least three ways. First there is nest predation, and for a wild bird shoot like mine this is the main issue. Crows and magpies are specialist nest feeders, taking eggs and chicks as a key part of their diet, and gamebirds can figure high on the menu, with rooks and jackdaws adding to the pressure. The second issue is food scavenging, and especially the way in which rooks can raid hoppers, and perhaps damage them in the process. Thirdly, and often less well recognised, comes the question of parasites and disease – corvids often carry anything from worms to viruses that can infect game and reduce productivity.
There are many facets to controlling these problems, but the real revolution of our times has occurred during the 30 years since the GWCT rediscovered the Larsen trap. From a situation where dealing with crows and magpies was very difficult, we have reached a point where anyone can exercise effective control if they wish. That said the 2022 versions of the general licences allowing corvid control are both complex and restrictive, so do please read and digest the ones that are relevant to your situation. You are unlikely to go far wrong over crows and magpies, but legally acceptable reasons for addressing rooks and jackdaws are now very few, and in England and Wales gamebird conservation is not one of them.
Rats
It hardly needs saying, but rats are a menace, they pinch food, damage kit, spread disease, and take eggs and chicks. Early spring is also a perfect time to address them, because the cover is at its lowest, making their holes and runs easy to spot, and late winter hunger means that they are often focussed near game feeders. I normally try to gas any rat holes that I can with aluminium phosphide pellets at this time of year. This largely sorts the issue, but any holes that get reopened can then be burrow baited with rodenticide as a back-up. This way we minimise the amount of poison used, and keep the risk of rodenticide going up the food chain, and contaminating other wildlife, as low as possible.
Stoats and other Mustelids.
And so to good old tunnel trapping. Since way back in the mists of time gamekeepers have tried to keep the impact of predatory wildlife on their game stocks to a minimum. A big part of this has been dealing with stoats and weasels through trapping, for both will kill nesting hens, and take eggs and chicks. Exactly which trap is used has moved on enormously, and UK keepers were pioneers in the concept of using traps that kill quickly, rather than grab any sort of hold, when they embraced the newly invented Fenn trap back in the 1960s. Today, to meet international humaneness standards, the Fenn is largely superseded by new traps like the DOC, PX3 and Tulley, that are much more reliable at achieving a quick kill. We are learning new techniques too, but the concept of inviting these little predators to poke their noses into inviting holes remains.
A Sustainable Policy
One of the key arguments against predation control propounded by our opponents is that it is an inherent failure, because what we remove is rapidly replaced by incomers. What this fails to recognise is that we are not expecting, or even hoping to have a permanent effect. What we are after is reduced predation, and that certainly happens when we temporarily lower the local predator populations. The fact that we need to repeat the project each year is fine; indeed, it is a clear mark of the sustainability of what we are doing.
If I look at my own records from the little Dorset shoot that I help run, what I see is approximately the same numbers of foxes, crows, magpies and stoats being accounted for each year. What I am doing, is taking out a sustainable ‘crop’ of predators each year, to increase the sustainable harvest of game. In the process, I am increasing the production of a range of other farmland and woodland wildlife, like skylarks, yellowhammers, song thrushes and turtle doves.
Mink and Rafts
While the use of tunnel traps about the shoot, and perhaps a few cage traps beside the release pen fence, will often account for a mink, those with waterways about the shoot should consider deploying a mink raft or two. Set out at a rate of about one per kilometre of waterway, they will prove invaluable in helping you spot the presence of mink before they do much damage. In detection mode you check the raft about once a fortnight, and once the mink leaves its footprints in the clay tracking pad, you can install a cage trap and usually expect to catch the culprit within a week. See www.gwct.org.uk/mink raft for more details.