Letter to my MP about the impact of Pheasants on our native wildlife.

I have been motivated to write this letter to my MP by Dr Mark Avery. He was formerly a Conservation Scientist with the RSPB. He is now an author, speaker and campaigner on wildlife issues. Here is a link to his daily blog http://markavery.info/blog/

Here is my letter, but first a photo.

 



 

Dear Ms Bradley

I am starting this email by asking you to look at a photo I took in my garden last summer. As I'm sure you will recognise it is several juvenile Pheasants walking up my garden path.

I get a lot of Pheasants visiting my garden, I have had up to nine in at any one time. They are attracted to the bird seed that I put out for the wild birds.

Pheasants are not “wild” birds in the sense that they are not a native species, although they may have been here a long time. According to one source they were first introduced in to the British Isles by the Romans or Normans.

These days they are extremely numerous – they have been said to be the commonest bird in the Bristish countryside. Just to get an idea of how many there are the British Trust for Ornithology's website says there were about 2.2 million females present during the summer of 2009; for comparison, in the same year there were estimated to be 1.8million pairs of Starlings – a native species. But it doesn't end there, according to the recently published Bird Atlas 2007 -2011 35million pheasants are released every year for sport shooting, and 15million of these are shot.

Now I like birds and wildlife in general, but I am concerned about the prevalence of Pheasants. Clearly most of them never get shot. Many die on the roads, (potentially causing accidents) while others are predated and perhaps some die of starvation. And, I know from personal experience that many survive to breed in the wild (I am certain that is the origin of the birds that visit my garden), thus producing more pheasants.

Not only are there a lot of them, the are big birds, bigger than most other native bird species. And they have omnivorous eating habits. Growing all that pheasant biomass must have an impact on our woodland, moorland and farmland ecosystems. One potential harmful impact is that of their predation upon reptiles; some herpetologists suspect pheasants may be eliminating particular populations of Adders in heathland areas adjacent to large Pheasant shoots. And, last year owners of Pheasant shoots asked if they could be issued with licences to “remove” Buzzards that were taking some of their Pheasant poults (Buzzards are a native wild bird).

So, would you please write to Defra and ask them for the following information?

1. What research has been done that addresses the range of ecological costs and benefits of rearing and releasing Pheasants for shooting? Does native wildlife benefit or is it harmed by Pheasant shooting? Does Defra have plans to do any such research?

2. What are the economic costs of road traffic accidents caused by Pheasants?

3. How many Pheasant poults are imported into England each year from the continent and what regulations govern their transport?  What are the implications of importing live Pheasant poults for the transmission of avian diseases into the UK?

4.  What are the main animal welfare concerns about the rearing and release of Pheasants and how are these currently regulated?

5. Please provide the same information for the other non-native gamebird, the Red-legged Partridge.