Shooting season is worth grousing about

ON a couple of occasions over the past few weeks I’ve mentioned my concerns over the conservation status of grouse in this country and questioned the wisdom of having a legal shooting season.

I’ve learned a lot more about the subject since.

A major scientific survey of stocks in the Republic was carried out between 2006 and 2008. The results were published in an extensive report by the National Parks and Wildlife Service as Irish Wildlife Manual Number 50, available on-line.

It was a multi-agency survey involving BirdWatch Ireland, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Zoology Department of University College Cork but it was managed by Dr Sinead Cummins of BirdWatch Ireland, who emailed me to answer my many questions.

The number of red grouse estimated in the Republic at the time of the survey was 4,200 individual birds in a number of fragmented populations. This is half the number thought to be in the country 40 years previously. Because of this decline, in 1999 the bird was placed on the Red List of species of the greatest conservation concern. The remaining strongholds are the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains, the Slieve Bloom Mountains in Co Laois and Blue Stack Mountains in Co Donegal. The biggest population decline has been on the Midland raised bogs and upland areas in Cork and Kerry.

The story of how the survey was carried out is interesting. Grouse live in heather, ling heather to be precise, and in Ireland they occur in low densities, typically between one and six birds per 100 hectares. This makes them very difficult to count. To add to the difficulty the survey work was carried out in winter and very early spring. One reason for this was to avoid disturbing the birds while they were nesting. The other was that male grouse become very territorial at this time of year and tend to betray their presence by calling loudly.

The teams that carried out the survey work must have been dedicated and very fit people because they spent many days climbing heather-covered mountains in winter. One method they employed was to use trained gun dogs to flush the birds from cover. Another was to play tape-recordings of the male bird’s loud ‘Go-back, Go back’ call it uses to announce its ownership of a territory, and then listen for a response.

So do these facts justify a 30-day legal shooting season for grouse in the month of September? The theory is that a pair of grouse may rear up to 8 chicks. Many of these will not survive the winter in their unforgiving habitat. So if a family covey is flushed in September and a couple of the young birds are shot this is a sustainable culling of a natural surplus. Some grouse shooters have also suggested to me it is beneficial to ‘break up the coveys’ in September, though I don’t really understand this argument.

Dr Sinead Cummins probably knows more about grouse than anyone else in Ireland, so what does she think? Here’s a quotation from her email: “Now that we have a clearer picture of how our regional grouse populations are doing, the main priority for both game enthusiasts and conservationists is to work together as a collective and ensure these populations are monitored on a regular basis, support management measures to improve grouse habitats and make certain that any shooting is carried out in a responsible and sustainable manner and only in those areas where populations can support it”.

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