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Effect of a joint policy statement by nine UK shooting and rural organisations on the use of lead shotgun ammunition for hunting common pheasants Phasianus colchicus in Britain

Green, Rhys; Taggart, Mark; Pain, Deborah; Clark, Nigel; Clewley, Louise; Cromie, Ruth; Elliot, Bob; Green, Ros; Huntley, Brian; Huntley, Jacqui; Leslie, Roderick; Porter, Richard; Robinson, James; Smith, Ken; Spencer, Jonathan; Stroud, David

Effect of a joint policy statement by nine UK shooting and rural organisations on the use of lead shotgun ammunition for hunting common pheasants Phasianus colchicus in Britain Thumbnail


Authors

Rhys Green

Mark Taggart

Deborah Pain

Nigel Clark

Louise Clewley

Ruth Cromie

Bob Elliot

Ros Green

Brian Huntley

Jacqui Huntley

Roderick Leslie

Richard Porter

James Robinson

Ken Smith

Jonathan Spencer

David Stroud



Abstract

There are significant negative effects of exposure to spent lead ammunition on wildlife and human health. A joint statement was issued by nine UK shooting and rural organisations on 24th February 2020 intended to encourage a voluntary transition to non-lead shotgun ammunition within five years “in consideration of wildlife, the environment and to ensure a market for the healthiest game products”. We dissected carcasses of wild-shot common pheasants Phasianus colchicus sold or offered for human consumption in Britain in the shooting season between 1st October 2020 and 1st February 2021 to recover shotgun pellets. The principal metallic element composing one pellet from each bird was identified using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The results showed that 99% of the 180 pheasants from which shotgun pellets were recovered had been killed using lead shotgun ammunition, compared with 100% in a much smaller study conducted in the 2008/2009 shooting season. We conclude that the shooting and rural organisations’ joint statement, and their subsequent promotional actions, have not yet had a detectable effect on the ammunition types used by shooters supplying pheasants to the British game market.

Citation

Green, R., Taggart, M., Pain, D., Clark, N., Clewley, L., Cromie, R., …Stroud, D. (2021). Effect of a joint policy statement by nine UK shooting and rural organisations on the use of lead shotgun ammunition for hunting common pheasants Phasianus colchicus in Britain. Conservation evidence, 18, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.52201/cej18rotz8607

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 18, 2021
Online Publication Date Feb 24, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Aug 2, 2021
Publicly Available Date Aug 2, 2021
Journal Conservation Evidence Journal
Publisher Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 18
Pages 1-9
DOI https://doi.org/10.52201/cej18rotz8607

Files

Published Journal Article (1.3 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
The Conservation Evidence Journal is an open access online journal devoted to publishing the evidence on the effectiveness of
management interventions. The other papers from The Conservation Evidence Journal are available from
www.conservationevidencejournal.com. The pdf is free to circulate or add to other websites and is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Under this licence, authors retain
ownership of the copyright for their articles.





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