James Horne, CEO of GunsOnPegs, presenting a £7000 cheque to Teresa Dent, chief executive of the GWCT for the Trust’s latest research, which is aiming to get the ‘wilder, element back on released shoots.
This new study, which was launched last year, is investigating methods that will encourage the survival of a larger community of wild pheasants on some released shoots.
James Horne, CEO of Guns-On-Pegs, who presented a cheque to Teresa Dent, chief executive of the GWCT, said, “This wild pheasant research is so important, not just for the sustainability of shooting , but for the conservation of our British landscape. This is a marvellous opportunity to support this incredibly important piece of research.”
At the end of the season over one million released hens will try and breed, but most will not succeed. This research therefore aims to discover why the breeding success rate of released hens is just 10 per cent of their wild cousins. The research will also investigate techniques that will encourage more released birds to breed successfully thereby increasing the ‘wilder’ element on released shoots.
Dr Rufus Sage, who is leading this research said, “We are really grateful for this donation which will fund 50 radio tags that will be used to radio-track and monitor the nesting success of pheasant hens. Understanding the size of broods, survival rates of hens, eggs and chicks as well as nesting habitat preferences will help us to gauge the various elements that affect breeding success and indicate how we can improve this success rate.”
The support of the shooting community means that researchers will be able to capture up to 100 pheasant hens at each of 15 carefully selected study sites and attach miniature radio transmitters around their necks before returning them to the wild. These specially made transmitters, lasting up to 10 months, emit a signal that is unique to each bird and can be tracked from up to 3 km away.
Dr Sage said, “Through this constant monitoring we hope to be able to understand which factors impact on the breeding success and chances of survival of released pheasants after the season. I am sure many shoots would like to introduce a ‘wilder’ element into their releasing programme and we hope this research will help them boost survival rates in the future.”
