06/07/2026
Pheasants, especially the c**k, are undeniably beautiful and graceful birds. But they are also destructive of native wildlife, especially insects: they eat spiders, ants, beetles, worms, grasshoppers, leatherjackets and caterpillars, and not content with that, they'll take reptiles such as baby grass snakes and lizards, and small mammals, such as the young of field voles and ground-nesting birds such as meadow larks. They are happy with plant roots and leaves, seeds and grain too. This is all very well, perhaps, were the wild population left to take its chances alongside its own predators such as foxes, but a staggering 30 to 40 million more of these omnivores are released each year for the shooting trade. And by no means all of those are shot: the UK population is steadily rising as a result. Unfortunately.
