Bonny Moor Hen

Chapter 2 looks at poor men’s hunting. Poor men went hunting too, only their masters call it poaching and, under the game laws, they could transport you for it. This chapter starts with events in the northern Pennines between 1797 and 1822 when poachers went toe to toe with game keepers over the right to take ‘The Bonny Moor Hen’. The Bishop of Durham and a conglomerate of landowners claimed the red grouse for themselves and built up an army of keepers to defend their right. Local people saw it the other way. Up on the moors, opinions seemed not to apply either way. It was more a question of what you could take and who you could defy. Chapter 2 includes the so-called ‘Battle of Stanhope’ recorded in song and story. There were two such battles in Weardale, one in October 1818 and the other in the December, when leadminers rescued comrades after a gun battles with the constables. The whole of the county magistracy were up in arms over these humiliations, literally so, and called in the Hussars. Leadminers thought they lived in a land of liberty and took game accordingly. Landowners thought the same. The chapter considers how eighteenth-century sporting art featured horses and hounds and parkland not simply as ‘pictures of record’ but ideal expression of the landed class’ right to possess and command.

When to count? Indices of population size for mountain hares of the north-west Lammermuir Hills, Scotland

Surveys with binoculars at two different times of day and in various months of the year, along with camera trap studies of diel activity patterns, were used to inform an appropriate period to count mountain hares ( Lepus timidus) on managed red grouse (Lagopus lagopus ) moorland of the Lammermuir Hills, south-east Scotland. Factors affecting the numbers of hares counted were time relative to sunrise, the presence of winter coat colour and reproductive behaviour in spring. Counts of hares in March and April starting one hour before dawn were used as an index of population size of the mountain hare over three years of observations on three hill-tops, with densities of 23-33 hares km-2. The number of hares seen was stable or rose slightly over the three years despite a partial cull on one of the hills. In support of suitability of the timing of surveys used, camera trap studies revealed that the period around dawn in March and April was associated with high levels of hare activity.

Are Trichostrongylus tenuis control and resistance avoidance simultaneously manageable by reducing anthelmintic intake by grouse?

Benzimidazole-based anthelmintics bound to grit (medicated grit) are annually prescribed on request by veterinary practices to grouse managers to control Trichostrongylus tenuis an intestinal parasite of red grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica. Those prescribing medication typically do without knowledge of parasite loads and hence often prescribe when loads are low and unlikely to impact the host. Inappropriate use of anthelmintics in livestock has led to development of parasite resistance to anthelmintics. To encourage grouse managers to reduce anthelmintic use, the authors experimentally withdrew medication from parts of eight moors. The authors monitored parasite and grouse responses by counting eggs and adult worms and grouse mortality and breeding success. Rapid increases in parasite egg counts in early spring culminated in resuming medication at three wet, blanket-peat sites; one in the first spring and two in the second. Medication was restored, despite low parasite counts, at a fourth moor. On the remaining four moors, drier heaths in the east, parasite levels remained low, were not associated with grouse mortality, but breeding success was 16 per cent lower in years without medication. Better parasite monitoring by grouse managers and vets alike may reduce anthelmintic use, helping prevent drug resistance, but this may be off-set by reduced grouse productivity.