Inglorious Twelfth? Calls for grouse season to be banned to prevent wildfires and peatland damage

As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’

Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips.

But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed. Wildfires have been raging on moors across the UK, burning habitats and incinerating wildlife after record-breaking heat has turned the landscape into a tinderbox.