Guy writes:
The Capercaillie – still not out of the woods
Capercaillies, the world’s largest grouse, are impressive birds. Their name derives from the Scottish Gaelic ‘capull coille’ meaning horse of the woods. I’ve only seen them a few times in Scotland, but had great views in Sweden on several occasions. I’ve also been fortunate to watch them from hides at very close quarters and experienced competing males with their amazing lekking display, ending with the ‘cork out of the bottle’ sound, as they attempt to win the rights over the waiting females.
They also have something of a fearsome reputation, as some of the testosterone charged ‘rogue’ males can be unafraid of humans and will attempt to drive them away. This photograph was of one such bird in Sweden. I confess I had previously found accounts of people being harassed by these birds as highly amusing. However, having experienced it at close quarters, I can now confirm it is not quite so funny and keeping a safe distance is the priority.
Unfortunately, along with the widely reported declines of many species, things are not looking too rosy for these birds in Scotland, and numbers have decreased significantly since the 1970s. Scotland’s population is assessed every six years by RSPB Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) with the most recent survey conducted during winter 2015/16. This estimated some 1,114 individuals, down slightly from the previous estimate of 1,285. RSPB Scotland is leading an action plan and working with several partners, including SNH, Forestry Commission Scotland plus various land and forest managers to reverse this decline. Numbers appear to have stabilised in some areas, but the there are still a range of potential problems facing these birds.
The species rich Caledonian old growth forest of Scot’s pine (my favourite tree!) once covered huge areas of Scotland. Tragically, around just 1% remains and these fragmented and isolated forests now provide sub-optimal habitat for capercaillies and other wildlife. Encouragingly, many are working hard to reverse this decline, such as ‘Trees for Life’, the recently formed Revive coalition, along with various rewilding projects. Deer, fencing and forestry management can also be problematic. RSPB research has demonstrated the problems of direct mortality through collisions with deer fencing and a program of removal and marking of fences has been undertaken. High deer densities are still a problem with too much grazing and browsing preventing regeneration of native pinewood.
Cold temperatures and wet weather in June, when the chicks are small, can reduce chick survival significantly and the unpredictability of weather from future climate change may cause further issues. Increases in human disturbance, where capercaillie habitat and popular recreation sites overlap, and predators, particularly in fragmented forests, may also be having a negative effect on productivity in some areas.
Hopefully, the efforts to support this magnificent bird will be successful. Increasing good quality habitat will no doubt be the key issue, and this in turn will bring huge benefits for other wildlife and ourselves.
Image taken with Canon 70D at 1/250 second with a Canon 70-200 f4.0 L lens at f4.0 ISO 400.
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I remember being chased by one at Abernethy years ago. I think you were on the same training course there – learning to climb trees (which I never quite mastered!) Perhaps you were chased by the same bird. I agree that it feels pretty scary when it happens. Funny yes, but only once it’s over.
The capercaillie has been used, infuriatingly, by the other side as a political football against the conservation movement. After large sums of money running into the millions being spent on saving the caper there isn’t that much to show for it, which of course is of delight to some in the gamekeeper community who can point to emphasis on habitat creation rather than predator control as the cause. The pine marten has increased and expanded its range as the caper has decreased which attracted inevitable finger pointing, and in fact in Scandinavia the marten gets blamed quite a lot for the same thing too. But the fox is quite a major predator of the marten and where it’s not being ‘controlled’ as at Strathspey the caper is at least holding its own, even increasing. The closer we get to the natural predator compliment the caper evolved with the better it gets for them, which makes you wonder what happens when you add the lynx, a major fox killer, to the mix. It’s illuminating to listen to the insistent calls for pine marten control to protect caper from Scottish keepers based on conjecture, and compare to their wall of silence over the virtually incontrovertible evidence martens are suppressing the grey squirrel population to the stage red squirrels can make a comeback. It’s also interesting that Irish gamekeepers were among the first to note this phenomena, but their Scottish counterparts who contributed to the ‘Understanding Predation’ missed it, it seems. ‘Talking Bullshite’ perhaps?
As far as habitat creation goes the considerable time, money and effort that’s gone into it has been seriously undermined by the efforts of others. Even on their own land conservation organisations have been put under intense pressure not to cull ‘too many’ deer because supposedly the red deer from neighbouring estates will move in to fill the vacuum – the cover and grazing they can’t get on their own over grazed hills. So of course deer fencing has to be used instead, but according to the self appointed caper experts in tweed deer fencing isn’t a problem for them, but predators they co evolved with over millennia are. Balmoral estate wasn’t prepared to cull enough deer to get forest regeneration without deer fencing so caper conservation there has had to contend with an element of it. Hardly ideal. Mind you considering that Scottish estates are allowed to keep an artificially high, winter supplement fed, red deer population that means more people are seriously injured and killed in road collisions with them then not surprising they can get off with compromising conservation projects. Then there’s the caper’s predilection for getting caught in snares……
In Scotland it’s difficult to go far with any conservation issue before the hunting, fishing, shootin set are a seriously negative influence. The most damming book I’ve ever read about the estates is because it didn’t set out to do so it was just an objective look at how DNA research is helping conservation, or trying too. Pete Minting’s ‘Amazing Animals, Brilliant Science ‘, is very well worth reading on various levels, but I think it excels in illustrating how ‘sporting’ estates have decimated our wildlife and are too often holding back its recovery. The most telling story is when Pete was manning a stall for a conservation organisation at a Highland games in 2014 that had a big picture of an adder. When a major landowner saw it he proudly exclaimed ‘We kill hundreds of those every year on our estate!’. One small consolation we’ll probably never see caper at a population density where they need medication.
I quite agree that the caper has been used as a political football, and this could make it harder to impliment conservation stratagies. For example foxes are a native species and should be present in areas where caper live, however it is possible that without natural controls (lynx being a major one) their numbers are too high and impacting on the ecosystem, e.g. by predating ground nesting birds. I don’t think saying this should be at all contraversial as all conservationists accept that deer numbers (a native species) are too high and damaging the environment. Sadly any attempt to reduce the number of foxes would be used by the shooting industry to try and justify predator control on shooting estates. I’m pretty sure that this is why some landowners are calling for a cull of pine martens to “protect” capers, it will “justify” culling in other areas. If fox numbers are too high then lynx reintroduction as a natural control would be the best answer. Lynx would also reduce roe deer numbers and reduce the grazing pressure, although they would have little impact on red deer numbers. Sadly I bet that if it was proposed to reintroduce lynx in areas where caper are present then landowners would use the possibility (whether real or imagined) of lynx preying on caper as a major reason to oppose it.
I think the greatest challenge for caper conservation is the fact they need mature pinewoods. As Guy correctly points out a lot of conservation organisations are creating new areas of forest, however it will probably be decades before these areas are able to support capers. Obviously it is impossible to plant 100 year old trees, all that can be done is plant saplings and wait, and in the meantime maintain existing pinewoods in good condition by reducing deer numbers to a sustainable level.
My grandfather told me that he was driving his steam engine between Craigellachie and Aviemore (some time ago!) when a male capercaillie ‘took him on’, tragically with fatal consequences for the bird concerned!
One of my RSPB colleagues was told by the new owner of a shooting estate near Dunkeld that he had shot the last displaying male capercaillie on his ground because “it looked lonely”!
Having watched a caper displaying for over 1 hour in 2017 [still lekking when I left] and seen disturbance that lasted just 2 minutes cause 14 minutes of no lekking the chances of caper being able to survive our little land does not look good at all. Forget predators folk enjoying the countryside are the problem and that is going to increase dramatically with mountain biking especially.
I remember in the 1970’s, it being almost guaranteed to see Caper on a trip to the Rothiemurchus or
Glenmore forests.
They would regularly flush from the tops of Pines, on one occasion I recall seeing no less than twelve
of these magnificent GAME BIRDS, all cocks, leave a stand of trees, one after the other.
In 1980, I found a nest with eggs in Inshriach forest, and in 2009, just after watching a Merlin back to its nest, myself and two companions entered the trees high on Creag Fiachlach, and encountered a hen Caper, clearly off eggs.
We quickly left the area, but the record was given to the working group, who were very interested.
The rise of this magnificent GAME BIRD, to its peak, probably the late seventies ?, was accomplished
at a time when the old forest was at its lowest ebb, most of the population being in planted forests,
with their attendant fencing, in spite of the bird ( along with BLACK- GAME) being treated as vermin
by many foresters, where there was no shooting interest to preserve them.
Fence lines did not seem to hold the population back then, so I imagine that something else has been the driver in the recent declines, fence kills not helping of course.
I would love to see Capercaillie flying beside the “Glenbogle” line, especially if/when it gets extended to Grantown, or beyond, maybe, one day.
Having experienced, on a few occasions, the ferocity and persistence of a cock Pheasants spring time
attacks, I can only imagine having to deal with unwanted attention from its larger brethren.
I even had them in Perthshire back in the 70s while erecting electric fencing of all things!