Driven grouse shooting

rdf:langString Driven grouse shooting

rdf:langString Driven grouse shooting is the hunting of the red grouse, a field sport of the United Kingdom. The grouse-shooting season extends from 12 August, often called the "Glorious Twelfth", to 10 December each year. Large numbers of grouse are driven to fly over people with shotguns. Driven grouse shooting first appeared around 1850 and became popular in the later Victorian era as a fashionable sport for the wealthy. The expanding rail network allowed relatively easy access into the remote upland areas of Britain for the first time and driven grouse shooting developed in tandem with this by providing shooting in a convenient and reliable form. Large numbers of birds are driven over a fixed position providing a regular supply of fast moving targets without the need to seek out the birds. The development of the breech-loading shotgun was also an essential ingredient in the development of the practice as it allowed more rapid reloading in the field matching the availability of target birds. The alternative to a driven shoot is a walked-up shoot. In this form of shooting the participants walk forward in a line and flush the birds as they go, either themselves or with the assistance of specially trained dogs. The typical terrain and vegetation found on grouse moors means that walked-up shooting is more physically demanding than a driven shoot and requires some physical fitness. Shooting takes place on grouse moors, areas of moorland in Scotland, northern England, and Wales. These areas, some 16,763 square kilometres in extent (about 8% of the combined area of England and Scotland) form an artificial habitat that is intensively managed, usually by regular burning, to provide a constant supply of young heather and to prevent the spread of trees and grass. Predators and mountain hares are also killed. These practices have been described as not just precluding birds of prey, but also preventing wildness, natural landscapes, forest and bog regeneration, and ecotourism.