Surge in Flemish interest in hunting

In all 900 Flemings will try to land a hunting permit by taking the exam. (Belga) For the first time over ten percent of those who have registered are women.

The number of hunters in Belgium has been in steady decline in recent years. Last year their number fell to 12,400.

Among the hunting fraternity the hope is that this year's figures mean that at long last the tide is being turned.

Erik Wille of the Saint Hubertus Association blames the fall of the past years on bad publicity: people making hunting artificially easy and the bad press the hobby sometimes gets.

Greater restrictions on arms also play a role.

"More fun than computer games"

In the daily Het Laatste Nieuws Mr Wille sums up the good things hunters do. As a result of their intervention no single species predominates.

The exam is preceded by a course in the Chateau of Lavaux Sainte-Anne in the woodlands of the Ardennes.

One participant, the 17-year-old Nicolas Derom told Het Laatste Nieuws that hunting was much more fun than computer games.

Nicolas has been accompanying his father for some time now, but now wants a permit of his own.

He says the course is pretty difficult as he struggles to distinguish the various birds of prey.

In addition hunters also need to have some grounding in law and ethics as well as knowledge of firearms if they are to obtain the coveted permit.

There is also a shooting test. "My Dad's not a solicitor"Veerle Adriaenssens is a young mother. It was her passion for birds of prey that got her interested in hunting.

She told the daily that killing was all part and parcel of nature adding that the birds of prey she kept at home didn't eat vegetables either!

Another candidate is a nurse. She says nurses too have a right to a hobby. She likes to accompany her father when he goes hunting.

Dissuading all the myths she adds:� My father is not a solicitor who is fed up with golf! He's a farmer!"

A Belgian licence also allows hunters to pursue their hobby abroad. The prospect of a hunting trip to Poland or the Czech Republic, it's one of the reasons why the hunting licence is becoming increasingly coveted.