By Felix Meister, Advisor (Scotland)
It was as a gamekeeping student at Borders College that I first became aware of the crucial role that the GWCT has played in improving the conditions for gamebirds ever since the foundation of the ICI Game Research Station in 1931. When an opportunity presented itself to work for the GWCT in 2022, I gladly took it, and it was then that I realised the true extent of its contribution to the shooting and gamekeeping communities.
As part of the research team, I soon learned that our research work in Scotland enjoys a unique degree of trust and appreciation from landowners and land managers alike, based on a belief in mutual benefits and shared values. I was given a pointing dog to carry out grouse counts on shooting estates all over Scotland in the spring and in the summer. Though these data are collected primarily for long-term monitoring of population dynamics, they help estates determine if they are likely to have a shootable surplus in the upcoming season. I was also involved in a research project that analyses whether there is a correlation between mountain hare densities and tick burdens on red grouse chicks. Ultimately, this five-year project aims to identify the long-term implications of the ban on mountain hare culls in 2020 for grouse shooting.
In 2023, I moved to the Scottish Advisory team, where my involvement with the shooting and gamekeeping communities increased. For instance, one important aspect of our work is disease monitoring for red grouse. In the autumn, we attend shoot days to take blood and gut samples from shot birds to test for Louping Ill Virus and strongyle worm burden respectively. We also analyse caecal pats collected from live birds in the spring for the presence of strongyle worm eggs. These test results help shooting estates adjust their tick-management regime and decide whether or not to use medicated grit. Without this monitoring, it would be significantly more difficult to produce strong and robust grouse populations with a shootable surplus in the autumn.
Under new legislation, estates now risk losing their grouse shooting licence if they are found to be in violation of the law, whether deliberately or from ignorance. An increasingly important part of our advisory work is to help land managers act within the law and adhere to best practice. We offer best-practice training courses on tunnel trapping, corvid control and grouse health and disease. In addition, we offer bespoke visits to estates to assess traps in situ. We also train land managers to keep electronic records of their management techniques, and we manage the data for them.
A keen shot myself, I take pride in knowing that my work for GWCT contributes to ensuring that responsible shooting has a future in Scotland and is armed against any upcoming challenges.
