Pheasant releasing does not increase fox numbers, a peer-reviewed study by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has found, countering one of the central claims made against gamebird management. The research article 'A comparison of red fox activity and gamebird diet on gamebird sites and on nearby no-release area in southern England', published in the journal Wildlife Biology, found no rise in fox activity when birds were released, and in the first year more signs of foxes on sites where no release took place.

Over a period of 19 months, GWCT scientists compared eight pheasant release sites with 10 similar farmland sites in southern England that released no gamebirds and they found no obvious increase in the number of fox scats when gamebirds were released in late summer, the moment critics argue the landscape is at highest with easy prey. Legal predator control carried out by keepers on releasing estates is, the Trust suggests, likely to be holding fox numbers at or below the levels found on surrounding farmland.

Opponents of gamebird release frequently blame the abundance of pheasants for boosting fox populations and increasing predation pressure on threatened ground-nesting birds, but the GWCT’s study showed similar or sometimes more fox activity on sites that did not release game, compared to otherwise similar sites that did, with fox control carried out on those sites that did release game most likely playing a significant role in suppressing fox numbers. It is also possible that gamebird releasing does not necessarily attract foxes in the way that is sometimes assumed, the relationship between gamebird releasing and fox activity in the landscape being more complex and variable than is reflected in the current debate.

Although the release of pheasants can have a negative impact, which tends to be localised at the level of the pen and can be mitigated by following best practice guidelines, the benefits to wildlife can also be considerable. Research undertaken by the GWCT has recorded up to 100 times as many songbirds per hectare in game crops in winter as in surrounding farmland, up to 65% more hedgerow per square kilometre on estates with released-gamebird management, and 32% more wild birds in woodlands managed for pheasants.

Best practice gamebird management is helping boost biodiversity alongside productive farming on a national scale, and it represents enormous private investment in public goods, which is critical if the government is to reach its legally binding biodiversity recovery targets by 2030. The report can be read here.