Cawston has a dedicated team of 14 game scouts with their own vehicle who make up our anti-poaching task force. Our game scouts patrol our boundary every single day checking the fence for breakages and keeping tabs on what is coming and going of both the two and four legged creatures.
There are four bases on the farm that the game scouts take turns staying at, which allow them to be in those areas 24 / 7 and thereby keep even better tabs on what is happening. With the growing number of horses on Cawston the ability to cover further ground and apprehend poachers sooner is much improved. Many of our game scouts know the basics of riding and are constantly being given further training by our horse volunteers.
Sustainable hunting ensures that only old animals or those clearly not capable of reproducing are taken out. Using either a rifle or a bow the kill shot is only taken when the hunter is sure of a clean kill. Sustainable hunting also only takes out animals of species whose population needs to be reduced to keep an even balance in the ecosystem. This is an extremely important factor in our current world where dedicated wildlife areas are rapidly reducing at the face of growing human populations.
Poaching is indiscriminate as hunting is carried out through using dogs to chase down an animal, or erecting a line of snares along an appropriate animal path or feeding area. Both these methods of hunting invariably take out breeding females, young bulls and calves. One snare line can take out a whole herd. Both methods of kill are inhumane due to the high level of pain and anxiety inflicted on the animal. Our anti-poaching team follow up every incursion of dogs and trespassing into our property and will track them to their residence if possible and their tracking is pretty good! Once a poacher is apprehended the police are called to assist with the arrest. Our team are very effective and poaching is very low in comparison to many areas around the country. Our anti-poaching efforts are further assisted by the very good relationships we have with the communities living around us.
