A comparison of falconry and hunting with guns with respect to the distribution of local game

Abstract

This study compares the impact of falconry and shooting in the same area on game and its distribution. We initiated a short-term assessment to test the hypotheses that falconry is more efficient than hunting with guns and that flying with birds of prey results in less game available for the gun. Rates of encountering and killing prey were compared for a hunting party with five goshawks and, one week later, a hunting party with five guns on the same land in Croatia. Encounter rates of game were similar for hunting with hawks (112 game flushed) and with guns (110 game flushed) one week later. However, the kill rate was higher when hunting with guns (40 game killed out of 110 flushed, 36%) than when hunting with goshawks (9 game killed out of 112 flushed, 8%). Our preliminary study thus suggests that falconry can contribute recreational and financial value to local communities as a complement to shooting, because it does not extract a large number of game animals or reduce the number of game animals available to gun-hunters.