Target Practice

 It is an issue in the UK (and across the world) that can quite often be contentious, but in the context of conservation the use of firearms is quite often necessary.

In the western world humanity has removed many of the top predators from their place in the food chain, leaving us with unnaturally high and unsustainable levels of some species such as Red Deer and Rabbits.

Non-native species such as American Mink, released into the UK by well meaning animal rights protestors from fur farms, can have a devastating effect on ground nesting birds and rodent species.

Left without any control these species can have a major impact on the flora and fauna of our wild places.  

At Skalanes we have two species that require a little control.  Having large colonies of ground nesting birds we must protect them against the non-native American Mink, which is normally done through trap/dispatch.  There are also a couple of breeding Arctic Foxes on the reserve.  As long as these keep to the upper areas of the reserve where they predominantly prey on Ptarmigan and away from the ground nesting colonies they are left alone.  However if allowed to prey on these colonies they would soon have a massive impact on bird species that are unable to protect themselves from this kind of predation.

Hopefully predator control is something we will not have to do while on the reserve here, however it is often a part of a rangers work.  There is no joy in killing these animals but it is necessary and without it we would see many of the breeding bird species here disappear.  We should not kid ourselves that we can simply leave the wild world alone, man has changed the balance and now management is required to maintain that balance and allow as diverse a range of plants and animals as possible to thrive.

With that in mind, Izzy and I went out this morning to do a spot of target practice and will hopefully have further chances to improve our skills over the coming weeks. Please note that only paper targets were harmed in the taking of these photos.