Time for change: the case for licensing grouse shooting

The UK’s rugged uplands might look wild, but across large swathes of these landscapes, all is not quite as it seems. Look closer. In many areas, the wild is in retreat. 

At their best, our iconic uplands are alive in spring and summer with the calls of Curlews, Dunlin and Golden Plovers. Merlins, Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls drift across the skies above. But all too often, our uplands are managed for just one bird and one purpose – the shooting of Red Grouse. 

To boost the numbers of Red Grouse available to be shot, grouse moor managers employ a whole range of techniques that have far reaching consequences for wildlife, natural habitats and people.  

In this short film, the RSPB’s Tom Aspinall speaks to colleagues who work in the uplands to delve deeper into the realities of driven grouse moor management and explain why the RSPB is calling for the UK Government to bring in a system of licensing in England, in line with new regulations in Scotland. 

Driven grouse shooting – which involves large numbers of grouse being ‘driven’ by people towards a line of waiting guns – is unique to the UK and unlike other styles of hunting practiced elsewhere in Europe.  

It is often depicted as a traditional part of upland life in northern England. But the way these landscapes are managed today would be unrecognisable to shooting parties of even a few decades ago. Our uplands, enjoyed by so many, have become Red Grouse production factories, with nature paying a heavy price. 

There is growing evidence that the drive to increase grouse numbers has led to increasingly intensive, and sometime illegal, management practices which are employed on an industrial scale.   

These management practices and their impacts include:  

• Burning 
  Red Grouse prefer to feed on young nutritious heather shoots, and to nest and hide from predators in older, longer heather. So, to create ideal conditions on grouse moors, gamekeepers use fire to form mosaics of heather of different ages and structures. These mosaics are on such a large scale across the landscape that they are visible from space.  
   
  This burning often occurs on internationally important peatland habitat, leading to the loss of stored carbon into the atmosphere, water pollution and increased flood risk, as well as the loss and degradation of habitats for wildlife.  

• Illegal killing of birds of prey 
  On some grouse moors, gamekeepers routinely kill birds of prey and other protected species that prey on grouse. This illegal killing has resulted in the killing, trapping, shooting and poisoning of birds like Hen Harriers and Peregrine Falcons from large areas of otherwise suitable habitat.  
   
  Between 2009 and 2023, the RSPB recorded 1,529 confirmed incidents of bird crime, involving the illegal persecution of at least 1,344 birds of prey. The majority of these incidents are associated with land managed for gamebird shooting. These confirmed incidents are only those which have been detected. Since many of these crimes take place in remote and inaccessible areas, the actual figures are likely to be far higher. 

• Predator control 
  To reduce losses of grouse to predators, gamekeepers use a range of techniques, such as gas guns and burning, to deter birds of prey from settling. They also trap, snare and shoot other predators, such as Foxes, Crows, Stoats and Weasels. Although this predator control can benefit certain species of breeding waders, restoring and sustainably managing our uplands would provide more benefits for nature, people and the climate. 

• Treatment of disease 
  Grouse are susceptible to disease, particularly Strongylosis, a debilitating condition caused by a parasitic nematode worm. To reduce this disease in grouse and boost the number of birds available for shooting, gamekeepers spread medicated grit containing the veterinary medicine flubendazole across large areas of the uplands. The use of this medicated grit is weakly regulated, with no control of dosage and little regard for the possible impacts on other wildlife and the environment.   

• Lead ammunition 
  Grouse continue to be shot with lead ammunition, which is toxic to both humans and wildlife.  

• Vehicles and tracks 
  Hill tracks are constructed – sometimes illegally – by bulldozing strips of peatland and surfacing them with plastic matting or rubble. These tracks are designed to provide easier access for both land managers and shooting parties, and cause significant damage to peatland habitats. 

It’s clear that management for driven grouse shooting is now on an industrial scale, turning the uplands into little more than factories for grouse production, with negative consequences for nature, people and the climate.  

Our uplands need to be places where nature can flourish and wildlife and upland communities can thrive. 

If grouse shooting is to have any place in the future of the uplands, it needs to change. And we need change now. England must go where Scotland has led. 

Since 2024, grouse shoots in Scotland must be licenced, meaning that any shoot that breaks the law risks closure. Responsible shoots have nothing to fear, whilst those who commit crimes must be held to account.