Discover Your Countryside – Game Wildlife

Protecting and promoting our game wildlife is an essential part of our conservation, with organisations working along side the shooting industry in order to help control game and manage numbers. Over the years, game shooting has also become a hot sporting pursuit, with increasing numbers of people getting involved in all types of shooting sports and the wildlife that surrounds them.

Primarily, shooting game is not just for sporting purposes with actual game management needed in order for existing habitat to be sustained. The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust is the leading UK charity that conducts scientific research into declines of specific species such as the grey partridge and black grouse, and advises on numbers and the effective reintroduction of threatened species into the world. The types of game birds that are targeted during the shooting seasons are pheasant, partridge, grouse (moor game) and black (heath) game or ptarmigan – the following species can only be shot at certain times in the year and within the prescribed times of the UK shooting season.

With a strong emphasise today on the whole process of game management, that’s from the shooting of game to its preparation for the pot, many organisations also work to encourage the appreciation of game as a wild and nutritious food source. Organisations such as BASC and their ‘Game On’ initiative seeks to change the attitudes of game wildlife as a traditional meat source whilst demonstrating the significant role that the general public can play in eating such locally produced foodstuffs.

To find out more about current initiatives that both BASC and the GWCT are running, or to discover more about game wildlife and sustainable game bird releasing, visit their websites at www.gwct.org.uk and www.basc.org.uk

Countryman Fairs organise 5 award-winning Game and Country Fairs across the UK throughout the year, each showcasing the very best in country life. Browse our website for more information on all of Countryman Fairs award winning events and join us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news and developments as they happen.