{"id":897420,"date":"2022-11-08T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agriland.ie\/?p=897420"},"modified":"2022-11-08T14:23:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T14:23:09","slug":"decline-in-woodcock-numbers-likely-due-to-habitat-loss-gwct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/farming-news\/decline-in-woodcock-numbers-likely-due-to-habitat-loss-gwct\/","title":{"rendered":"Decline in woodcock numbers likely due to habitat loss – GWCT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Habitat loss due to the increasing fragmentation of woodland <\/a>is likely to be behind the decline in woodcock numbers throughout Ireland and Britain, according to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surveys carried out in 2003 and 2013 showed a 29% decline in resident breeding woodcock, with the number of males falling from 78,350 to 55,240 within the ten year period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a GWCT survey of shoots in 2017\/2018 also showed that shooting pressure has reduced following the group’s advisement to postpone the activity until December 1, when migrant woodcock have arrived from Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British isles see an influx of 1.3 million migrant woodcock every year, from breeding grounds in Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states and Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation has published a new conservation guide following 50 years of research on how to provide the varied habitat that the birds require. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image: Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The publication comes as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been encouraged to consider a legal ban on the shooting of woodcock until after November 30, each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the authors of the report have argued that a legal change to the starting date of the shooting season would likely be ineffective until more data on woodcock numbers are available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GWCT added that it hopes to carry out more research in conjunction with the British trust for Ornithology (BTO) next year to collect this information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Andrew Hoodless, GWCT director of research and leading authority on woodcock, said “a repeat national breeding woodcock survey will provide an up-to-date population estimate and enable regional assessments of change in breeding woodcock numbers since the last survey in 2013”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It would be sensible to wait for the results before considering a statutory change to the woodcock season.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

“Enforcing a shorter season now risks alienating them and impacting woodcock conservation efforts,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stated that the trust’s research shows that the shooting of woodcock on a national scale is likely to be a small risk relative to other factors but remains important at a local level, and called on shooters to follow the guidelines outlined in the GWTC’s recent publication. <\/p>\n\n\n

Also Read: <\/strong>Sale of livestock vet antibiotics at lowest ever level in UK<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Habitat loss due to the increasing fragmentation of woodland is likely to be behind the decline in woodcock numbers throughout…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3496,"featured_media":897555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,566],"tags":[1286,2199,8237,1010,14276],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897420"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897991,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897420\/revisions\/897991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightsail.agriland.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}