Poaching and coursing

Poaching involves the taking of deer, fish or other game without permission, or using unlawful methods. Coursing is the hunting of animals with dogs, by sight.

There were 118 recorded poaching and coursing offences in 2023-24, and 86 offences in 2024-25.
Figure 20: poaching and coursing offences recorded by Police Scotland, 2019-20 to 2024-25, by target species.

With the exception of a spike in offences in 2020-21 (212 offences), recorded poaching and coursing offences have ranged from 86 to 118 offences per year between 2019-20 and 2024-25. Fish poaching represented just under half of these offences in this six-year period (338 out of 734 offences; 46%). The second most commonly targeted species were hares and rabbits (255 out of 734 offences; 35%), followed by deer (124 out of 734 offences; 17%). Birds were targeted very rarely, with just five offences (less than 1%) recorded between 2019-20 and 2024-25.

Further detail: see Tables 53 and 54 of the supporting documents for details of poaching and coursing offences by target species and police division, and Tables 55 and 56 for offences by target species and time of year.