{{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 and capture of game or other animals by dogs—chiefly greyhounds and other sighthounds—that outrun their prey, tracking it by sight rather than scent. Coursing was once a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, the landed, and the wealthy, as well as by commoners with sighthounds and lurchers. 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 so until Carolingian period 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, coursing refers to predation by the running down of prey over long distances, as opposed to stalking, in which a stealthy approach is followed by a short burst of sprinting, or ambush, the sudden capture by surprise of unsuspecting prey. Though humans still course prey, 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 hares, foxes, deer of all sorts, antelope, gazelle, jackals, wolves. Jackrabbits and coyotes are the most common animals coursed in 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 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