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BTO Blueline
RED GROUSE
Lagopus lagopus
Red Grouse © G H Higginbotham
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: amber (25–50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: priority species
Long-term trend
UK: decline
UK population size
155,000 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using GCT gamebag data: BiE04, APEP06)
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 since 1994. Shooting bags have revealed long-term declines, apparently driven by loss of heather moorland, increased predation from corvids and foxes, and an increasing incidence of viral disease (Hudson 1992, Newton 2004), 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 numbers in the post-breeding period (Redpath & Thirgood 1997). Longer-term trends in Red Grouse abundance are overlain by cycles, with periods that vary regionally, linked to the dynamics of infection by a nematode parasite (Dobson & Hudson 1992, Gibbons et al. 1993).
 

Population changes
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 11 1995-2006 106 -14 -27 -2    
  10 1996-2006 108 -20 -31 -7    
  5 2001-2006 105 -24 -35 -12    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 48 -14 -30 3    
  10 1996-2006 50 -16 -31 -1    
  5 2001-2006 56 -19 -32 -7    
BBS Scotland 11 1995-2006 53 -15 -32 10    
  10 1996-2006 52 -22 -38 0    
  5 2001-2006 43 -26 -44 -6 >25  

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
 

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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G.,
Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009).
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008.
BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009