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Capercallie: A Review of Research Needs

1 INTRODUCTION

The capercaillie Tetrao urogallus is an evocative bird of mature pinewoods in the Scottish Highlands where its has undergone a dramatic decline in numbers and range. In an attempt to arrest or reverse this decline the Scottish Executive, Forestry Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage have funded this project, which aims to:

• Produce a bibliography on capercaillie
• Review the Scottish and international literature and identify and prioritise research needs in relation to capercaillie conservation
• Identify improvements to conservation practice that could be made without further research

Two reports have been produced; the review and the bibliography. The review is spit into four sections; a review of the literature highlighting factors which might be limiting the Scottish population (section 2), research priorities (section 3), improvements in conservation practice (section 4) and reference material (section 5) cited in sections 2 to 4. The review forms the main part of the report, and at the end of each sub-section a box lists the key points to emerge. The literature on capercaillie is large (around 400 references in the bibliography) and in the limited time available it has not been possible to read and distil it all.

The bibliography of capercaillie literature is produced as a separate report. It includes publications that contain a substantial reference to capercaillie, although capercaillie might not appear in the title. Publications in English or with an English summary/abstract are included. There is considerable literature on capercaillie in other languages with no English summary/abstract; these are largely excluded.

On the 1st February a meeting of those involved in research and management of capercaillie was held at Forest Lodge, Abernethy to try and highlight the main problems facing the species. Subsequently, most of those who missed the meeting have been contacted for their views. I thank all of these people, and particularly those who have provided copies of unpublished manuscripts.

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