Game Shooting: Boot under fire for partridge plans

Environment Minister calls for importation of species

The Environment Minister has put forward a motion for Grey Partridge to be imported to the Isle of Man, so that hunters can shoot them.

He says the importation of the species will 'encourage the improvement of habitats' and 'benefit other wildlife' - though some in environmental circles dispute these claims.

Lewis Foster asked Geoffrey Boot MHK to explain his plans:

Bill Henderson MLC has written to the Chief Minister Howard Quayle calling for the motion to be withdrawn, calling the plans "appalling" and "out-of-line with government's biodiversity strategy."

Whereas the environment minister described the birds as a native species to the Island.

Mr Henderson disagrees, saying "They're not really native to the Island and are only here as a result of previous game hunters bringing them here in the 17th Century".

Mr Boot says the proposal has since been postponed due to 'stakeholder engagement' but he still plans to push it through Tynwald in Autumn.

The Grey Partridge has never been abundant on the Island, but temporary, small and fragmented populations have occupied suitable areas, that were once sustained through the use of traditional, less intensive farming methods.

In the 1970s the surviving population from repeated attempts to introduce them here crashed.

Environmental groups put this decline down to a change in modern farming practices, and the use of man-made chemicals (among other factors).

Since 2002, there have been fewer than 10 recorded sightings a year, with none reported to Manx BirdLife since 2014.

However the Grey Partridge has not yet officially been declared extinct in the Isle of Man.