Expanding the range of black grouse in the Uplands - Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
A new project by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is underway to translocate black grouse from their stronghold in the North Pennines to the North York Moors to expand their range and help them to recolonise areas where they have not bred for nearly 200 years.
Black grouse are red listed as a species of high conservation concern. In England, they are now largely restricted to the North Pennines, which includes parts of County Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Here, numbers remain broadly stable, fluctuating between 1-2,000 displaying males over the last 25 years.
The North York Moors have been selected following landscape-scale habitat improvements on the fringes of moorland managed for grouse shooting. This has included the removal of conifer woodland and restoration to bog, heath and scrub woodland, moorland grasslands being managed more extensively and bracken control restoring bilberry and heather moorland. There have been sporadic sightings of black grouse in the North York Moors, but there is no record of them breeding here since the 1840s.
Led by researchers from the trust’s Uplands team and funded by £164,000 from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme, the Black Grouse Range Expansion Project will also look to explore brood rearing and foraging habitats currently used by black grouse hens in the North Pennines.
Translocation of birds
Birds will be caught at night and immediately transported to and released into a specially selected site, which has the required mix of habitats for them. This will be done under a licence from Natural England.
Some of the birds will be equipped with radio transmitters to allow researchers to follow settlement patterns, survival and lekking behaviour.
Dr Phil Warren, from GWCT and leading the project, says: “Natural re-colonisation of black grouse to the North York Moors from the existing populations in the North Pennines is currently limited by the 30-km gap across unsuitable lowland farmland habitats in the Vale of Mowbray, which is on the limit of the dispersal range of black grouse. In recent years, occasional females have been seen, but no breeding recorded. We wish to help them re-establish here by moving birds to take advantage of habitat improvements and a likely more favourable climate, which is typically drier and warmer in June when chicks hatch.”
Posted On: 02/10/2024
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