Hi all,

I am currently doing some research - a comparitive study of game estates in Scotland and in New Zealand - and was wondering if someone could help me with a question that I have been pondering about for some time. How much access is there in Scotland to hunting on public land? By that I mean in national forests/parks etc by joe public. If there is access how is it organised? Ballot and what other conditons are in place. Theres lots of deer - is it all tied up privately? Any help would be much appreciated - even if its just pointing me in the right direction.

Cheers...........

Loosecat,
Simple answer is there is NO public land to shoot on in scotland,apart from wild fowling on the foreshore.
Shooting is of course readily available to all....depending on the size of your chequebook
but then nobody rides for free I suppose.

Roebuck222

Roebuck,

I thought as much. I have been looking at changes in hunting in New Zealand for my PhD. A big part of this has been the increase in game estates down here chasing the tourist dollar. New Zealands traditions of hunting are based around unrestricted public access on public land - partly a reaction to the creation of the deer forests in Scotland in the 19th century. Im in Dunedin in the South Island settled by Scots mainly and some of the Reds came from stock from Scotland in the 1880's onwards to provide hunting for the common man. Im finding it very interesting looking at the same animal in two quite different contexts and the way they are managed (not managed) as an introduced 'pest' (kill as many as you want) in NZ and how in Scotland they are protected from themselves (overpopulation) by some quite robust legislation. Hope to make it all the way up there next year for a few weeks and have a good look around. Only made it as far as Dundee on my last trip.

Cheers...

Loosecat,

This issue of treating big game animals as pests, and doing the utmost to destroy them, be it with air-dropped poison or helicopter shooting, was the thing that got me about NZ hunting. I absolutely adored the country, and there was some lovely hunting to be had - even outside the farmed deer enclosures used for top-$ trophy hunting. But this idea of the big game animals being imported pests and needing extermination was kind of hard to adjust to.

It was almost a moral question. Lots of countries have problems with populations getting too high - determined one way or the other. But some people (mostly Greens and politicians, it seems) in NZ, seem to use the fact these animals are introduced as an excuse to throw all ethics over board. And yet, it seems like you'd have the system in place to actually control and utilize the resource in a sustainable manner. At least your bird hunting seemed to be under control, with all that it takes such as Fish & Game organization (I forget the NZ name), seasons, bag limits, licences etc etc.

I can fully understand the issue of the original flora and fauna being under pressure and even danger from introduced species. But hey, nobody wants to exterminate the 40 million sheep introduced, nor cut too deeply in forrestry operations. I question whether the big game populations have done a fraction of the damage done by either sheep or forrestry.

So it seems, that the big game simply does not have much of a lobby in NZ. Because it can be hunted for free on public land, it is essentially worthless, so nobody (other than the odd hunter) really cares much about it. And the Greens can continue their extermination policies. It really is sad, when one thinks about NZ having the World's finest populations of reds in the first half of the 20th Century. Sad that!

- mike

Mike,

You have got it exactly right! This lack of management of game animals is probably my main focus for my study. The lack of ethics surrounding hunting in New Zealand also is interesting - just because an animal is introduced does that make it any less worthy of repect? Its still the same animal. A lot of kiwis have an 'kill em all' attitude because of our historical open slather polices.

This seems to be starting to change - but only because the animals go through an pest-resource-pest-resource cycle and presently there is some debate surrounding game estates in New Zealand. There is strong oppisition amoungst hunters to game estates because of the public/private aspects but it has rasied the profile of deer as a resource and there are increased calls from all hunting quarters (recreational and commercial) for some kind of game animal leglislation.

Thanks for your input

Cheers.......