Bid to increase black grouse population

01/05/2008

A plan to expand the population of rare black grouse from the North Pennines across the Yorkshire Dales and other countryside locations has been launched.
The species - once common in the UK - has been under threat for a number of years, owing to predators and a loss of habitat.

But thanks to a successful restoration drive, the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project said the English population of the bird is up from 773 males in 1998 to 1029 in 2006.

Now a consortium of conservationists is extending the project beyond the species' stronghold in the North Pennines, to more remote areas in north-west Northumberland and the Yorkshire Dales.

Morag Walker, of The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, said: "At one stage there were black grouse across the country. They were once very common but now they're not, because of predators, and a loss of habitat, and so on.

"We're now trying to expand their range so that they move out to other areas. We're trying to get people on board in the project - landowners, gamekeepers, land managers."

She said there are already "little, isolated pockets" of the grouse in Northumberland and Yorkshire - "but they are tiny, tiny amounts compared to sparrows, for example, which are two-a-penny".

Black grouse are currently in their mating season, during which the males perform showy early morning displays in woodland leks, or mating arenas.

Martyn Howat, director of Natural England North East, said the North Pennines lek, where the birds could be seen strutting and ruffling their black plumage, had been used for about 50 years.

The North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project is a 12-year partnership between the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Natural England, RSPB, Ministry of Defence, North Pennines Areas of Outstanding Natural Bea Partnership and Northumbrian Water.

The full article contains 321 words and appears in Press Association newspaper.Page 1 of 1

Last Updated: 30 April 2008 7:28 PM
Source: Press Association
Location: The Press Association Newsdesk

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