A return to Hasty Bank along a lovely trod, an old favourite, thoughtfully chosen to avoid the paved motorway of the Cleveland Way. What a transformation from three days ago, when there was proper snow cover. Now the snow has almost melted away, revealing the bleak “bare bones of winter,” as some poet once lamented.
A cacophony below us served as a reminder that there are about two weeks left of the pheasant shooting season. From somewhere down Bilsdale came the occasional gunshot, while the plantation immediately below echoed with the cries of these birds as they took flight. Wild birds, you say? Hardly. They are bred and released for the game industry’s amusement. Some, though certainly not all, find their way onto supermarket shelves.
In a groundbreaking revelation from the University of Cambridge back in 2023, nearly every pheasant sold in the UK was still riddled with lead shot, despite a noble-sounding but laughably ineffective promise by shooting groups to phase it out. The study examined pheasants from various sellers and found that 94% had been killed with lead, a marginal improvement from previous years. We await with bated breath to see how the grand ambition of abandoning toxic ammunition by 2025 turns out to have been little more than a delusion, with progress moving at the pace of a wounded bird.1Green, R.E. et al: ‘Voluntary transition by hunters and game-meat suppliers from lead to non-lead ammunition: changes in practice after three years.’ Conservation Evidence Journal, February 2023. DOI 10.52201/CEJ19/SAFD8835
These pheasants, by the way, are not even native to the UK. Millions are released into the countryside every year, wreaking havoc on local ecosystems. But why worry about that when we can fret over two rogue lynx?
Yes, in a thrilling sideshow, two lynx were illegally released in the Scottish Highlands, prompting panic near Kingussie. Dubbed “The Killiehuntly Two” by the media, the animals were soon captured by wildlife experts working with the police. They were, I heard, so tame they gave themselves up. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland called the stunt reckless and warned it could have been fatal for the lynx. For now, the pair languish in quarantine, with the possibility of a future in captivity at the Highland Wildlife Park.2“Lynx captured after illegal release in Highlands.” BBC News. 8 January 2025. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o
Lynx, once native to the British Isles, are no threat to humans but are efficient predators. Some conservationists cling to the dream of officially reintroducing them to Scotland, though they insist on doing it responsibly—as if there were another option.
- 1Green, R.E. et al: ‘Voluntary transition by hunters and game-meat suppliers from lead to non-lead ammunition: changes in practice after three years.’ Conservation Evidence Journal, February 2023. DOI 10.52201/CEJ19/SAFD8835
- 2“Lynx captured after illegal release in Highlands.” BBC News. 8 January 2025. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6z61ylj40o
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