{"id":717389,"date":"2026-07-29T14:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717389\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:22:09","slug":"scotlands-centuries-old-guga-hunt-could-be-refused-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717389\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland&#8217;s centuries-old guga hunt could be refused licence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The practice, called a guga hunt and dating back to the 15th Century, usually takes place in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last year NatureScot granted a licence allowing up to 500 birds to be killed, following three years when the hunt had not been held due to bird flu. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The agency said the number had been reduced from 2,000 in recent times to allow the population to recover from the impact of the disease. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A total of 485 birds were taken at the 2025 hunt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ahead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.scot\/sites\/default\/files\/2026-07\/board-of-naturescot-meeting-exceptional-board-meeting-03-august-2026-determination-of-guga-licence.pdf\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Monday&#8217;s meeting, external<\/a>, NatureScot said: &#8220;We understand there are strong feelings about the guga hunt, and that some people will disagree with it taking place. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The hunt is recognised in law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which makes specific provision for the granting of a licence for the purpose of providing food for human consumption in relation to the gannets on the island of Sula Sgeir. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Our role is to make licensing decisions based on the most recent scientific evidence and the relevant legal frameworks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It said it would not be making further comment until after the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The practice, called a guga hunt and dating back to the 15th Century, usually takes place in August.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-717389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}