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RED GROUSE
Lagopus lagopus
Red Grouse © G H Higginbotham
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (25-50% population decline)
Long-term trend
UK: decline
Distribution maps
Maps and statistics from British and Irish
atlases can be viewed here.
Status summary
The distinctive dark-winged race scotica is endemic to Britain and Ireland and has the vast bulk of its population within the UK. BBS shows no overall trend in the size of the Red Grouse population since 1994. 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, N.J. Aebischer pers. comm.), which have prompted the move of the species from the green to the amber list. Raptor predation is believed not to affect breeding populations significantly, although it can reduce post-breeding abundance (Redpath & Thirgood 1997). Red Grouse abundance varies in cycles, with periods that vary regionally, that are linked to the dynamics of infection by a nematode parasite (Dobson & Hudson 1992, Gibbons et al. 1993). All population data should therefore be interpreted in this context.
 
BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Red Grouse
Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
BBS UK 9 1994-2003 100 22 -1 50    
BBS England 9 1994-2003 40 4 -19 33    
BBS Scotland 9 1994-2003 56 32 -2 77    
BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
 
Productivity information is not currently available for this species
 
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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2005)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2004.
BTO Research Report No. 385. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 18 January, 2006