The History of British Mammals by Derek Yalden

Author:Derek Yalden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 1999-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 6.2 Reintroduction of the Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris into Scotland (after Ritchie 1920). The most important reintroductions were to Dalkeith in 1772 and Dunkeld in 1790, but there was also natural immigration from England into south-eastern Scotland in 1834. Dates of first appearance at various locations and suggested routes of spread are indicated.

DECLINE OF THE PREDATORS

The protection offered to game species in hunting areas undoubtedly saved the deer from total extermination in Britain. The status of some of the carnivores may have saved them too. The Red Fox has always been an equivocal beast. For farmers it has always been a menace to poultry, and while its threat to lambs has always been greatly overestimated (Hewson 1984, Rowley 1970), it has certainly been persecuted with vigour in upland sheep-rearing areas. These prejudices were willingly adopted by the new gamekeeping profession in the 19th century, which saw any predator as a threat to the carefully husbanded Partridge and Pheasant. Nor were they mistaken. The Red Fox can have a demonstrable impact on the autumn harvest of gamebirds, because it tends to take the sitting hens and their eggs, just the stage of the life-cycle that needs to be protected (Tapper et al. 1996). So why was the Fox not wiped out in England, at least, as were several other predators? In some places it was; the Fox remained scarce in East Anglia until the 1960s, and has only recolonized within the last 30 years or so, having been exterminated last century (Tapper 1992). What saved it in many places is that it was itself the quarry of formalized hunting. In these hunt territories, coverts were created to give sanctuaries, and hedgerows were maintained to create interesting challenges to the huntsmen (as well as foraging areas for the Foxes). There are claims that Foxes were even imported from Europe, and were moved around the country from estates where they were ‘vermin’ to hunt territories.

The Otter similarly benefited from its status as the quarry of the Otter Hunts across most of England, Wales and lowland Scotland, balancing its pest status as perceived by game anglers, particularly in the Highlands. Prior to the development of pack-hunting, Otters were killed as part of the general war against predators, for their fur, and for the protection offish ponds in particular (Howes 1976). At Arksey, between one and five Otters a year were killed through the 18th century, for a bounty of one shilling; in Doncaster, the payment in 1619 had been 6d, compared with 2d per Weasel and 4d per Polecat, so the Otter was always rarer and a more profitable target. However, the pelt was worth as much as one guinea, an even more tempting reason for killing one. Otter packs came into being by 1796. There were 23 Otter Hunts at their peak in the 1920s, and they killed 434 Otters in 1933, their highest toll (Jefferies 1989). Packs of otterhounds were extravagant status symbols, even more than foxhounds, and depended on support not only by the members but also from spectators.

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