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How many gamebirds are released in the UK each year?

View ORCID ProfileJoah Robert Madden
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350603
Joah Robert Madden
1Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, EX4 4Q, UK
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  • ORCID record for Joah Robert Madden
  • For correspondence: j.r.madden@exeter.ac.uk j.r.madden@exeter.ac.uk
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ABSTRACT

Large numbers of gamebirds (pheasants Phasianus colchicus, red-legged partridges Alectoris rufa and mallard Anus platyrhynchos) are released annually in the UK to support recreational shooting. It is important to know how many of these birds are being released because their release and management has ecological effects on the wildlife and habitats of the UK. There is little regulation governing their release and consequently the numbers being released are unknown. I made 71 estimates of the numbers released based on numbers being reported formally via import controls and the Poultry Register, or extrapolated based on the breeding outputs of reared birds, or extrapolated based on the likely numbers and behaviour of shoots, or extrapolated based on observations of surviving birds. Based on the set of these estimates that fall within credible boundaries (ranging from 14.3 to 70.1 million birds), I estimate a mean of 34.5 million birds (95%CI 30.9-38.1 million) and a median value of 32.1 million (IQR 22.0-44.9 million) being released. This suggests that 24.3-25.3 million pheasants, 4.2-9.4 million partridges and 1.0-4.9 million mallard are released annually in the UK. These figures are markedly lower than previous published estimates and I discuss why such differences may occur. I set these figures in the context of the number and behaviour of shoots operating in the UK.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 23, 2020.
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How many gamebirds are released in the UK each year?
Joah Robert Madden
bioRxiv 2020.10.22.350603; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350603
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How many gamebirds are released in the UK each year?
Joah Robert Madden
bioRxiv 2020.10.22.350603; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.22.350603

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