Driven grouse shooting is a field sport in the United Kingdom that involves the shooting of red grouse. It is one of two forms of the sport; the other is walked-up shooting. Driven grouse shooting involves grouse being driven (i.e. encouraged and corralled by beaters) to fly over people with shotguns in fixed positions. In contrast, walked-up shooting involves participants advancing in a line and flushing the birds as they move forward. Walked-up shooting is more physically demanding than driven shooting, often resulting in a lower number of birds being shot.
The grouse shooting season begins on 12 August, except in the Isle of Man, where it would start on 25 August were it not for a voluntary ban now in place. It ends on 10 December, except in Northern Ireland (30 November) and the Isle of Man (31 October). 12 August is sometimes referred to as the "Glorious Twelfth" by enthusiasts of the sport.
The sport first appeared around 1850 and gained popularity among the wealthy in the late Victorian era. The expanding railway network provided relatively easy access to the remote upland areas of Britain for the first time and in parallel with this, driven grouse shooting became possible in a convenient and reliable form. In driven grouse shooting, large numbers of birds are driven over a fixed position, providing a regular supply of fast-moving targets without the need to seek out the birds. The advent of the breech-loading shotgun was also an essential part of the development of the practice, as it allowed for more rapid reloading in the field, matching the availability of target birds.
Shooting takes place on grouse moors: areas of moorland in Scotland, northern England, and Wales. These areas, covering some in extent, about 8% of the combined area of England and Scotland, are managed to provide a favourable habitat for red grouse. Between 1870 and 1965 the sheep population in Scotland fell by about 500,000 animals because of commercial competition from Australia and New Zealand. As a result, areas of former pasture were converted to deer forests or grouse moors.The Changing Distribution of Breeds of Sheep in Scotland, 1795–1965 W. J. Carlyle THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY R£VIEW Vol 27 page 19 https://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/27n1a3.pdf Retrieved 6 September 2023 from website of the British Agricultural History Society
Management techniques used on grouse moors include heather burning, also known as "muirburn" in Scotland, to ensure a sustainable supply of both young and old-growth heather, and predator control – mainly foxes and predatory birds such as corvids (including crows and magpies). Some people oppose these practices because some species are killed for the benefit of others, although proponents of managed moorland argue that the species targeted are abundant, while those benefited are of greater conservation importance. These include ground-nesting birds such as the lapwing, curlew, meadow pipit, golden plover, redshank and woodcock.
There has been controversy over the alleged persecution of raptors on grouse moors. Raptors are legally protected species in the United Kingdom. Opponents of grouse moor management also argue that such practices prevent the development of natural landscapes, forest and bog regeneration, and ecotourism.
Description The red grouse is a medium-sized bird of the grouse family or subfamily. It is found in heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It is usually classified as a subspecies of the willow grouse, but is sometimes considered to be a separate species Lagopus scoticus, found only in the British Isles. It is also known as the moorfowl or moorbird. Grouse can fly at speeds of up to , making them difficult targets. The name "driven grouse shooting" refers to the way in which the grouse are driven by clubs towards the shooters (otherwise known as 'guns'). A shooting party usually consists of 8–10 guns standing in a line in the butts—hides for shooting spaced some apart, screened by a turf or stone wall and usually sunk into the ground to minimise their profile—to shoot the grouse in flight. A code of conduct governs behaviour on the grouse moor both for safety and etiquette.
Grouse moors have been described as "the ultimate trophy asset... one of the ultimate playthings, for which people will pay far more than the asset value."
Grouse shooting can also be undertaken by 'walking up' grouse over pointers, or by flushing the birds with other dogs.
In southern Sweden, this form of hunting is referred to as fjälljakt, a term which originates from the Swedish term for the mountain biome itself. This biome is not managed through burning, but rather consists of a wooded mosaic, comprising heather, trees, lakes and bogland. Its management by, in particular, large wild herbivores such as moose maintains this mosaic as a stable condition, with modest populations of grouse (often hidden from predators in willow thickets) and a rich variety of other species.
Moorland management
Draining
Large areas of grouse moor were previously blanket bogs, where sphagnum moss is the dominant vegetation, and drainage is required to allow heather to flourish.BD5104 'Restoration of blanket bog vegetation for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and water regulation'. Final Report Defra Project BD5104, final version March (2019). Dr Andreas Heinemeyer, Dr Harry W. Vallack, Dr Phoebe A. Morton, Dr Rachel Pateman, Dr Calvin Dytham, Prof. Phil Ineson, Dr Colin McClean, Prof. Charles Bristow and Dr James W. Pearce-Higgins, with an Appendix by Richard A. Lindsay. Stockholm Environment Institute, Environment Department, University of York, YO10 5NG http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=14717_DefraBD5104FinalReport.pdf p.2 Drainage can damage these bogs.
Burning To ensure a mosaic of heather of different ages, gamekeepers carry out controlled burning of the vegetation, targeting patches of heather between 1 October and 15 April. A burned patch of heather allows for the growth of fresh shoots which provide essential nutrition for grouse. Burning also prevents the accumulation of dry plant matter.
Heather burning is typically carried out in a patchwork pattern, ensuring a variety of heather heights, on a rotational basis spanning between eight and twelve years. While the new-growth heather shoots provide a source of sustenance for the grouse, the older, taller growth provides them with cover and shelter. As a result of this land management practice unique to the UK, heather moorland is a globally unusual habitat.Aebischer, N., Ewald, J. & Tapper, S., 2010. Driven grouse shooting in Britain: A form of upland management with wider conservation benefits. In: Proceedings of the World Symposium on Hunting Activities: Ecologic and Economic Benefits of Hunting. The World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities. (The claim that 75% of the world's heather moorland is found in the UK is contested and has been shown to be unsubstantiated.) 60% of all England's upland Sites of Special Scientific Interest are managed for grouse shooting. UK moorlands and blanket bogs are a carbon sink and opponents to burning heather argue that it can release this carbon. However, proponents argue that in a controlled burn only the heather is burnt and that the charcoal from burned heather is stored in the soil.
Heather burning, if not carried out properly, can have negative effects on peat hydrology, peat chemistry and physical properties, river water chemistry and river ecology. Moor burning reduces the growth of Sphagnum moss and the density of macroinvertebrates which play a vital role in aquatic food webs by feeding on algae, microbes and detritus at the base of food chains before they themselves are consumed by birds, fish and amphibians. Burning also reduces the water content of the upper layers of peat, making it less able to retain minerals that are essential for plant growth and resisting the chemical effects of acid rain.
In an effort to mitigate the adverse ecological effects caused by burning, some moorland estates managed for grouse shooting have agreed to abstain from burning over protected blanket bogs, where fires dry out and burn the peat. However, some burning of these areas continues. If a moorland has not been burned for several years, large stands of rank and woody heather accumulate, increasing the risk of large fires in dry ground conditions due to the high fuel loads. Larger wildfires tend to be more intense and are more likely to burn the underlying peat. This risk is limited to long-established, unnatural heather moorland that is actively burned; wildfires are very rare in the corresponding mosaic biome of southern Sweden.
Mowing Mechanical mowing has been trialled to achieve the same objective of regenerating heather. Mowing produces only one-seventieth as much overall carbon dioxide emissions as burning but costs about six times more.BD5104 'Restoration of blanket bog vegetation for biodiversity, carbon sequestration and water regulation'. Final Report Defra Project BD5104, final version March (2019). Dr Andreas Heinemeyer, Dr Harry W. Vallack, Dr Phoebe A. Morton, Dr Rachel Pateman, Dr Calvin Dytham, Prof. Phil Ineson, Dr Colin McClean, Prof. Charles Bristow and Dr James W. Pearce-Higgins, with an Appendix by Richard A. Lindsay. Stockholm Environment Institute, Environment Department, University of York, YO10 5NG http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=14717_DefraBD5104FinalReport.pdf pp.5–6
Killing predators Grouse moors have a nearly 200-year history of killing large numbers of predators, including many species that are now protected. Burning and predator control correlate with higher densities of red grouse, as well as some other species that can thrive on open heather moorland; golden plover, curlew, lapwing, common redshank and ring ouzel. The RSPB's Investigations Team reports that in 2017, despite large areas of suitable habitat, not a single hen harrier chick was produced on a privately owned grouse moor. Illegal killing of raptors on grouse moors is widespread.
A 2017 study commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage into the fate of satellite-tracked golden eagles concluded that "Corroborative information points to the perpetrators of the persecution of tagged eagles being associated with some grouse moors in the central and eastern Highlands of Scotland," and that "[t]his illegal killing has such a marked effect on the survival rates of the young birds that the potential capacity for the breeding golden eagle population continues to be suppressed around where this persecution largely occurs."
The Langholm Moor Demonstration Project prevented the persecution of raptors, especially hen harriers, and found that grouse would survive in the presence of a more natural number of predators. However, raptor predation at Langholm reduced autumn grouse abundance by 50%, making organized driven grouse shooting unprofitable. A community land project now hopes to purchase much of the land in question. The Langholm experiment suggests that, to be profitable, intensive grouse moors need to be predator-controlled. The RSPB reports that there appears to be a "background of illegal persecution" of raptors on British grouse moors.
Shooting and poisoning are not the only methods used to kill predators. Illegal snares have been used to kill predators on grouse moors; Spring and rail traps are widely used and can kill a variety of protected species. Snares placed to trap foxes have even injured humans.