BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Red Grouse

RED GROUSE
Lagopus lagopus

Conservation Listings

Unlisted/Green
Biodiversity Steering Group: Unlisted

Long term trend

UK: Decline

Status Summary

The distinctive dark-winged race scoticus is endemic to Britain and Ireland and has the vast bulk of its population within the UK. The BBS shows no overall trend in the size of the Red Grouse population. However, Game Conservancy Trust surveys have revealed long-term declines, apparently driven by moorland loss and degradation and increased predation from corvids and foxes (Hudson 1992). Raptor predation is believed not to affect breeding populations significantly, but can reduce post-breeding abundance (Redpath & Thirgood 1997). Red Grouse abundance varies in cycles, whose period varies regionally, that are linked to the dynamics of infection by a nematode parasite (Dobson & Hudson 1992, Gibbons et al. 1993). All population trends should therefore be interpreted in this context.

Table of population changes for Red Grouse

Source Period
(yrs) Years Plots
(n) Change
(%) Lower
limit Upper
limit Alert Comment

BBS UK 6 1994-2000 102 15 -6 42

BBS England 6 1994-2000 39 -4 -26 26 Small sample

BBS Scotland 6 1994-2000 59 23 -9 67

The Breeding Bird Survey is jointly funded by BTO, JNCC and RSPB

Productivity information is not currently available for this species

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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Crick, H.Q.P., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Leech, D.I., Marchant, J.H.,
Noble, D.G., Raven, M.J., Simpkin, A.P., Thewlis, R.M. and Wernham, C.V. (2002) Breeding Birds in the Wider
Countryside: their conservation status 2001. BTO Research Report No. 278. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

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