CAPERCAILLIE
Gamekeepers warn that under current conservation plans we are about to say goodbye to the capercaillie in Scotland.
Capercaillie died out in the mid to late 1700s due to a mini ice age and deforestation. They were reintroduced from Sweden in the early 1800s and cared for by landowners and gamekeepers. This reintroduction led to the birds reaching populations of 20-50,000 in the mid 1900s.
Their survival rates were so good that the capercaillie, which can damage trees, were viewed as pests by forestry groups (which included the forestry commission, a government body) that the birds were shot on sight and their nests destroyed.
Since 1970 the populations of foxes, badgers, woodland raptors and pine martens have increased dramatically, creating enormous predation pressure on capercaillie populations. For example pine martens have increased by over 100 fold in the surviving capercaillie areas and foxes by the same margin and possibly more, across Scotland as a whole.
Today public money, which runs into millions, being spent on increasing the capercaillie population is being wasted. The self-limiting conservation efforts of RSPB, SWT and SNH are not producing the intended benefit.
The SGA believe there are far less capercaillie left in Scotland today than the figure of 1,228 claimed by protectionists. However, if fully protected against over predation, they could again expand and repopulate many parts of Scotland.
Ironically, those that profess to be caring for them are letting them die out in the name of political correctness. Despite the claims of reduced habitat, there is more adequate and suitable forestry in Scotland now than there was 60 years ago when the capercaillie was numerous.
Conservation and protectionist bodies claimed that fencing and lack of habitat were the main reasons for the capercailzies decline
Since the expensive removal of fencing and habitat manipulation the capercaillie numbers have continued to crash, proving these issues were not the main reasons for the birds decline. However, in spite of this failure, these same bodies want more cash to repeat the same processes.
Climate change, in the form of wetter springs, may be having a small local effect on populations but there are areas in Scotland where capercaillie are surviving and producing young despite those changes. Citing Global warming as a limiting factor in overall capercaillie production is deliberately misleading.
Recent experiments by RSPB on the impacts of martens on capercaillie nests showed that 18 out of 20 nests were predated, yet there has been no direct effort to eliminate or reduce this predation. We believe that RSPB are reluctant to apply for licences to remove these predators because it might upset their members and that they also fear any licence granted to control protected predators might open the door to all licensing, resulting in raptor controls. If this is the case then RSPB are apparently willing to sacrifice the capercaillie (a bird in serious decline) rather than see control of protected species, many of whose populations are at an all time high.
We feel that the RSPB cannot be trusted to make an unbiased decision with regards to what is necessary to the future survival of birds such as the capercaillie. Fear of losing membership and public sympathy, vital to their financial stability, appears to be their first consideration before any action is taken.
Considering that RSPB receive a large portion of the EU capercaillie grants.
The SGA are questioning whether it is right that those who base their wildlife decision making processes, using this criteria, should be advising the Scottish Government?
BERT BURNETT