Driven grouse shooting
Driven grouse shooting is the shooting of the red grouse and a field sport in the United Kingdom. The grouse-shooting season begins on 12 August, sometimes called the "Glorious Twelfth", ending on 10 December each year.
Driven grouse shooting entails grouse being driven (i.e. encouraged and corralled by beaters) to fly over people with shotguns. The sport first appeared around 1850 and became fashionable amongst the wealthy in the later Victorian era. The expanding rail network allowed relatively easy access into the remote upland areas of Britain for the first time and driven grouse shooting developed in tandem with this by providing shooting in a convenient and reliable form. 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 development of the breech-loading shotgun was also an essential ingredient in the development of the practice as it allowed more rapid reloading in the field matching the availability of target birds.
An alternative way of shooting grouse is a walked-up shoot. In this form of shooting the participants walk forward in a line and flush the birds as they go, either themselves or with the assistance of specially trained dogs. The typical terrain and vegetation found on grouse moors means that walked-up shooting is more physically demanding than a driven shoot and requires some physical fitness.
Shooting takes place on grouse moors: areas of moorland in Scotland, northern England, and Wales. These areas, some 16,763 square kilometres (6,472 sq mi) in extent (about 8% of the combined area of England and Scotland) are managed to provide a beneficial habitat for red grouse. In the period from 1870–1965 the sheep population of Scotland dropped by around 500,000 animals (because of commercial competition from Australia and New Zealand). In consequence, areas of former pastureland were made into deer forests or grouse moors.
Management techniques for grouse moors include heather burning (known as "muirburn" in Scotland), to ensure a supply of both young and old heather, and predator control – principally foxes and predatory birds such as corvids (including crows and magpies). Some people oppose these practices because of the killing of certain species for the benefit of others, although proponents of managed moorland argue that the species targeted are abundant, whilst those that benefit are of greater conservation importance, including ground-nesting birds such as lapwing, curlew, meadow pipit, golden plover, redshank and woodcock.
There has been controversy over alleged persecution of raptors on grouse moors. Raptors are protected species in the United Kingdom. Opponents also argue that managed moorland prevents wildness, natural landscapes, forest and bog regeneration, and ecotourism.: 167