In the UK, gamekeepers look after the estate’s game, rear the pheasant chicks, burn the heather on the moors to encourage new growth for the grouse to eat, shoot wild dogs, cats, raptors and any other animal or bird that may want to kill and eat these “game” animals. When I was young, they used to tie dead squirrels, corvids, raptors, owls, jays and magpies etc on fences to show what a good job they were doing. In Scotland people still have to police private estates to discourage gamekeepers from shooting the ospreys and golden eagles, but I believe the law was changed a few years back to make the landholders responsible if any of their employees shot a protected species – but in those vast spaces, who can catch them redhanded? and it’s no doubt easy to quickly busy a dead bird. People are trying to reintroduce wolves into Scotland and there is a lot of protest from sheep farmers and the local lairds. This is to reinstate the natural balance a little, and cull the red deer population that is eating the ancient Scots Pine forests to death. The stags head down into the forests in the valleys in winter and eat the young trees and shoots, killing them, while the female deer stay higher up. Because of the money made by selling shooting rights, there are too many stags as the best money goes to the stag with most tines. Wolves would help to clean out the herds, taking the sick or old, as has been successfully done in Yellowstone. Bird organisations are also wanting to reintroduce Sea-Eagles to the Fens (Norfolk/Suffolk) where they used to be found, and have already done so in Scotland. Reintroduction of Red Kites 20 or so years ago in central southern England, has been very successful and they are now common birds west of London. We met a UK birder in Capertee NSW once who was very much against the sea-eagle introduction – saying there were no trees in the Fens suitable for them to nest in. Nonsense! They will also nest in cliffs – there are cliffs there as well as trees. It’s a very difficult and delicate job trying to please everyone. Penny, Gloucester, NSW > My first husband was a gamekeeper in Buckinghamshire for a lord F.. His job was to protect game, but I also gather that he accompanied parties out shooting. I also understand that he tried at times to protect his Lordship from himself (occasionally he drank a little too much). > > Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow > PO Box 71 > Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841 > 043 8650 835 > > PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW. > > Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia > Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004. > > With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 11 Jan 2016, at 2:05 pm, Carl Clifford < carlsclifford@gmail.com> wrote: > >> They preserve game on a property for later shooting. >> >> Carl Clifford >> >>> On 11 Jan 2016, at 1:47 PM, Peter Shute < pshute@nuw.org.au> wrote: >>> >>> Ian, just curious, and it’s not necessarily relevant to the topic – what does a gamekeeper do? >>> >>> Peter Shute >>> >>>> —–Original Message—– >>>> From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf >>>> Of Ian Rist >>>> Sent: Monday, 11 January 2016 11:15 AM >>>> To: Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org >>>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Tasmanian fox fraud >>>> As a professional hunter and Gamekeeper I am at the ‘coalface’ >>>> contantly …I repeat again – not I or any of my many colleagues who are out >>>> in the Tasmanian countryside and bush from dark until daylight sometimes >>>> five and six nights a week have seen a fox, let alone shot a Tasmanian fox. >>>> Several $5,000.00 rewards for a Tasmanian fox have not produced a single >>>> fox. >>>
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