Fluoroscopic measures of shooting pressure on Pink-footed and Grey Lag Geese

Abstract

In recent years many efforts have been made in America to estimate the comparative shooting pressure that the sporting public applies to various kinds of waterfowl. These have included tabulations of the numbers of licences sold to shooters, numbers of federal duck stamps sold (a form of tax on those pursuing waterfowl only), estimates of total kill by sample counts of hunter's bags, voluntary report systems and rates of recoveries of rings from waterfowl shot and reported. Each of these methods is fraught with particular difficulties, for total shooting pressure is the resultant of many forces, including number of guns in the field and the number of wildfowl at which they may shoot (as controlled by regulation of close-seasons and the weather phenology of the particular year). Shooting pressure is also influenced by the sporting traditions of the nation, for this determines the number of species considered worthy of the wildfowler's efforts.