Editing Coursing

{{Short description|Hunting method and dog sport}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=July 2009}}
[[File:Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski - Myśliwi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|''The Hunter'', oil on canvas, [[Alfred Kowalski]]]]
'''Coursing''' by humans is the pursuit of [[Game (food)|game]] or other animals by [[dog]]s—chiefly [[greyhound]]s and other [[sighthound]]s—catching their prey by speed, running by sight, but not by scent. Coursing was a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, the landed and wealthy, as well as by commoners with sighthounds and [[lurcher]]s. In its oldest recorded form in the [[Western world]], as described by [[Arrian]]—it was a sport practised by all levels of society, and it remained the case until [[Carolingian]] period [[Royal forest|forest law]] appropriated hunting grounds, or commons, for the king, the nobility, and other landowners. It then became a formalised competition, specifically on [[hare]] in Britain, practised under rules, the ''Laws of the Leash'.<ref name="Burgeland">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rL4UAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Laws+of+the+Leash%22&pg=PA193 |page=193 |title=The sportsman's cyclopaedia : comprising a complete elucidation of the science and practice of hunting, shooting, coursing, racing, fishing, hawking, cockfighting, and other sports and pastimes of Great Britain, interspersed with entertaining and illustrative anecdotes [LeatherBound] |last1=Johnson |first1=Thomas Burgeland |orig-date=1848 |year=2023}}</ref>

As a zoological term, it refers to predation by running down prey over long distances, as opposed to stalking, in which a stealthy approach is followed by a short burst of sprinting. Humans also employ coursing as a means of hunting, but the term is normally reserved for predation by non-human predators.<ref>Montgomery, Robert A., et al. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632072100450X The hunting modes of human predation and potential nonconsumptive effects on animal populations]. ''Biological Conservation'' 265, 2022: 109398</ref><ref>MacNulty, D.R., et al. [https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/88/3/595/1065104?login=false A proposed ethogram of large-carnivore 395 predatory behavior, exemplified by the wolf]. ''Journal of Mammalogy'', 88(3) 2007, pp.595-605</ref>

== Sport and hunting ==
Animals coursed in hunting and sport include [[hare]]s, [[fox]]es, [[deer]] of all sorts, [[antelope]], [[gazelle]], [[jackal]]s, [[wolf|wolves]]. [[Hare|Jackrabbit]]s and [[coyote]]s are the most common animals coursed in [[United States|the United States]]. Competitive coursing in [[Ireland]], the UK (until prohibition in 2004), [[Portugal]] and [[Spain]] has two dogs running against each other. In the United States, generally speaking, three dogs are run together.
  
The [[Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002|Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act]] and the [[Hunting Act 2004]] (in [[England and Wales]]) made it illegal to hunt any type of mammal with dogs with the exception of rabbits and rats. Dogs are still permitted to chase (flush) game into the path of a waiting gun, as long as no more than two dogs are used.

In Australia, dogs may be used to hunt feral animals such as foxes, deer, goats, rabbits, and pigs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boardogs.com/Boardogs_Deerhounds1.htm|title=Boardogs Deerhounds|access-date=23 July 2016}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Hare coursing]]
*[[Greyhound racing]]
*[[Lure coursing]]
*[[Cheetah]] and [[Caracal]] – two feline species also historically used in similar hunting practices
*[[Courser (disambiguation)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Hunting by dog}}
{{EB1911 poster|Coursing}}
*Blanning, Charles. ''The Greyhound and the Hare: A History of the Breed and the Sport''. The National Coursing Club, 2018.
*Blanning, Charles. ''Twenty Two Waterloo Cups 1981-2005''. Charles Blanning, Fullerton Press in association with the National Coursing Club, 2022.
*Cox, Harding Edward de Fonblanque. ''Coursing and falconry'' 1899 [https://archive.org/details/coursingandfalc00richgoog]
*Copold, Steve. ''Hounds Hares & Other Creatures: The Complete Book of Coursing'' 1977/1996
*Dansey, William. ''Arrian On Coursing: the Cynegeticus'' London: J. Bohn, 1831 [https://archive.org/details/arrianoncoursing00arri]
*Macpherson, H. A. ''The hare'' 1896 [https://archive.org/details/haremacp00macp]
*Phillips A.A. & Willcock M.M. ''Xenophon & Arrian On Hunting with hounds'' 1999
*Grant-Rennick. ''Coursing, The Pursuit of Game with Gazehounds'' 1976 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927132538/http://www.dogsincanada.com/book-learning-coursing-the-pursuit-of-game-with-gazehounds]
*[[M. H. Salmon]] ("Dutch"). ''Gazehounds & Coursing: The History, Art, and Sport of Hunting with Sighthounds'', Rev. and expanded 2nd ed. Silver City, N.M.: High-Lonesome Books, 1999. {{ISBN|0-944383-49-1}}.
*Stable, Owen QC, & Stuttard, R.M. ''A Review of Coursing'' British Field Sports Society, London 1971
*Turbervile (Gascoigne), George. ''The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting'' 1576. See page 246 "A short observation ... concerning coursing" [https://archive.org/details/turbervilesbooke00turb]
*Walsh, Edward G. ''Longdogs by Day'' 1990

{{Hunting topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Dog sports]]
[[Category:Hunting methods]]