How many birds are killed by ‘hunters’ in each km2 of the UK each year, and how does that compare with other European countries? Have you ever wondered?
Neither had I until a reader of this blog put me in touch with the data with which one can work it out.
Well it depends what you mean by hunters, it depends what you mean by birds and it depends on whether the available data are accurate or not – but have a think about it before I tell you the apparent answer.
Tricky isn’t it because it depends on how many hunters there are and how big the country is – but how many per km2? One bird per km2 seems quite high for my immediate environs, or for many upland areas, but not for grouse moors or pheasant shoots and I guess we need to count pigeons too. It’s tricky because there are lots of places where there is very little shooting and a few places where there is loads. Wildfowling on the coast?
The data are for Annex 2 species which include a lot of ducks, geese and swans, some waders, all those grouse, partridge and pheasants, and thrushes (because although we don’t, others do) and pigeons etc – here’s the list – click here.
But is the UK rich (if you’d call it ‘rich’) in hunters or are they thin on the ground compared with the gun-toting Spanish, French, Italians and obviously Maltese?
Rather than try to figure out the number killed per km2, maybe it’s easier to try to guess where the UK comes in a list of countries ranked by that measure? Near the top? Near the bottom? Or in the middle?
The data on birds killed come from here and the data on hunter numbers come from the hunters – click here.
And the answer is:
| Country | Birds killed/km2 | Hunters/km2 |
| Malta | 1258 | 47 |
| UK | 91 | 3 |
| Greece | 76 | 2 |
| Cyprus | 72 | 5 |
| Italy | 57 | 2 |
| Denmark | 50 | 4 |
| France | 40 | 2 |
| Belgium | 38 | 1 |
| Ireland | 36 | 4 |
| Netherlands | 25 | 1 |
| Spain | 22 | 2 |
| Czechia | 13 | 1 |
| Hungary | 7 | 1 |
| Germany | 6 | 1 |
| Slovakia | 3 | 1 |
| Finland | 3 | 1 |
| Austria | 3 | 1 |
| Slovenia | 3 | 1 |
| Norway | 2 | 0 |
| Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 1 |
| Swizerland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia | all <1 | all 0-1 |
I was surprised that getting on for 100 birds/yr are killed in each km2 of the UK – that’s getting on for one each hectare (100m x 100m). I was surprised but maybe I shouldn’t have been. So we are in second place in the list of birds killed/km2 even though we don’t have the highest density of hunters – our hunters may be thick (on the ground, of course) but they are only the 5th highest density. If you calculate (with the actual data rather than the simplified rounded versions here) how manybirds are killed/km2/hunter then we beat the Maltese but have to give best to the the Greeks, Belgians and Dutch.
But Malta! Blimey! Loads of hunters but an incredible death toll (and these are the legal deaths alone). Admittedly some other countries put effort into other techniques such as traps, liming and netting too, but not so much for the species we are considering here.
Interesting to muse upon, I hope.
A couple of people have told me they can’t see this blog today – sorry! It seems fine for most people as best I can tell. It’s certainly not an affects-everybody problem.
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Under the conditions of the General Licence shouldn’t there be a record of all birds hunted which could help this data? Or am I to assume that this data is never checked or recorded publicly? Surely some of the larger estates must have their 3 year pest control records checked regularly? The Government has promised to reverse the decline of nature by 2030 so pest control and especially pest control for conservation purposes must be crucial data that they’re dying to get their hands on surely?
Simple answer I think Dave much as I agree with you is No!
Fascinating! It is possible to think of some factors that might affect this in addition to the blood-thirstiness/hunting prowess of the citizens of each country. For example Norway has a population less than that of London but an awful lot of square miles of territory for them to shoot over. Some countries may have relatively high proportions of un-huntable land (e.g. cities, – Luxembourg??, alpine peaks, large lakes etc). Having said that, there do not seem to be such obvious differences in terms of population density or accessible countryside to explain why Britain should have a kill rate per km that is 15 times than that of Germany. Brits seemingly like killing birds more than Germans do for some reason – although I know from personal experience that shooting is popular in Germany (I am guessing that they may kill more deer than us, not to mention wild boar). It is evident that the wise bird should steer well clear of Malta if it possibly can.
Perhaps worth giving a shout out here to CABS (https://www.komitee.de/en/about-us/) who do some courageous work to stop illegal bird killing in Malta and other parts of southern Europe as well as in Germany and other parts of northern Europe.
Jonathan – nobody else throws anything like so many Pheasants and RLPs into the countryside of course.
Indeed.
And we shouldn’t be doing that either. Canned hunting with no effort appreciation or care what all that live game meat does to our environment whether it is good , bad or neutral it certainly isn’t remotely natural. Proper hunting involves an understanding and appreciation of natural processes and the quarry, taking advantage of a temporary natural surplus and taking some of it to eat, something most shooters in the UK are far removed from, as are the Maltese and the other top five at least on the list. Why we should be opposed to it.
It’s surprising to me that most shooters (rather than hunters) seem to be the same people who are so opposed to rewilding or habitat enhancement. We have a chance now to restore our ecology and with more ambitious targets there would be that surplus of wildlife for hunters to harvest without having to resort to bragging about how many free-range chickens they’ve slaughtered without having to walk too far from the Range Rover. It would mean hunters trying to get away from the trophy hunting and bragging rights mentality that seems to dominate the culture though.
The Netherlands figure surprises me, i thought they had banned everything , even having to gas a load of geese a few years back.
Whichever way one looks at it, this country is more or less at the top of this table of those who like to kill, maim and injure our wildlife for fun. This is hardly surprising when we have this wretched Government in Westminster that strongly supports these Victorian practices and all their associated cruelties.
The day will come however, when no one is allowed to own a gun and when killing and maiming our wildlife and fellow creatures for fun will be a criminal offence.
Very well put as usual, Alan – thank you.
A lot of sick people on Malta obviously
I don’t think it’s helpful to designate people who shoot animals, whether in Malta or elsewhere, as ‘sick’.
It suggests an inability to see things from anyone’s perspective other than your own, which, ironically is one of the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy.
Well, the problem with Malta is that there is fuck all to do on it. That does seem to inspire that sort of apathetic lifestyle where the desire to do harm just to feel like you can achieve something, thrives. Especially when they have a culture where they used to be important, at least regionally, but no longer are. Then you have a lot of pride, arrogance, and self importance, but with no actual outlet, so hurting something or someone and being defiant for no reason but being defiant, which again leads to the same problems. Someone really needs to work on getting the Maltese to accept their new place in the world as just a tiny nation who needs to learn how to cooperate instead of being proudly defiant.
Damn, I seem to have written Malta and Maltese instead of Britain and British there.