Red Grouse Male in Spring. XBI 4997-467
The red grouse is a bird of heather moorland with a range restricted to areas of blanket bog and upland shrub heath. It is a subspecies of the willow ptarmigan whose range extends across the northern latitudes. The red grouse differs by not developing white plumage during the winter and in having a diet almost exclusively of heather. Since the middle of the 1800s, grouse shooting has become one of the major land-uses of upland ground and the most important source of income for many estates. Small numbers of grouse can be shot sustainably from unmanaged moorland. Producing large harvestable surpluses of grouse is associated with a number of management practices; the management of heather habitat by controlled burning (muirburn), light grazing, predator and disease control. Grouse are not reared and released for shooting. Current estimates suggest a British breeding red grouse stock of 250,000 pairs. Breeding densities can reach over 50 pairs per kilometre square in spring. In general, grouse numbers have remained stable on many Northern English moors. Numbers have declined seriously in Scotland and grouse are now only present in very low numbers in Wales. These declines have precipitated the move of the red grouse from green to amber conservation concern. Red grouse habitat. Kilometre squares that contain at least 25 hectares of moorland. Included are all three moorland and heath classes defined by the CIS Land Cover Map. Blue areas are where red grouse are present. The greatest densities of grouse occur between 40% - 80% heather cover and productivity is greater on moorland with more nutrient rich heather2. On a national basis, there was a 30% loss of heather between 1950 and 1980, largely due to overgrazing in winter by sheep and deer, conversion to forestry, and reduced levels of managed heather burning which stimulates new growth. This loss of heather may now have stabilised. The populations of many grouse predators appear to have increased in recent decades, wh
Size: 5477px × 3638px
Location: Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. Grampian Region. Scotland. United Kingdon.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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