Capercaillie
Encyclopedia
The Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), also known as the Wood Grouse, Heather Cock or Capercaillie icon, is the largest member of the grouse
family, reaching over 100 cm in length and 6.7 kg in weight. The largest one ever recorded in captivity had a weight of 7.2 kg. (15.9 lbs). Found across Europe and Asia, it is renowned for its mating display.
), this species' name is derived from the Gaelic
capull coille, meaning "horse of the woods".
It was first described by Linnaeus
in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current binomial name.
Its closest relative is the Black-billed Capercaillie
, Tetrao parvirostris, which breeds in the larch taiga
forests of eastern Russia
and parts of northern Mongolia
and China
.
The races show increasing amounts of white on the underparts of males from west to east, almost wholly black with only a few white spots underneath in western and central Europe to nearly pure white in Siberia, where the Black-billed Capercaillie occurs. Variation in females is much less. The native Scottish population, which became extinct between 1770 and 1785, was probably also a distinct race, though it was never formally described as such; the same is also likely of the extinct Irish
population.
(these hybrids being known by the German name Rackelhahn) and the closely related Black-billed Capercaillie.
s are coloured dark grey to dark brown, breast feathers are dark green metallic shining. The belly and undertail coverts vary from black to white depending on race (see below).
The hen is much smaller, weighing about half as much as the cock. Her body from beak to tail is approximately 54–64 cm (21–25 in) long, the wingspan is 70 cm (28 in) and she weighs 1.5-2.5 kg (3.3-5.5 lbs). Feathers on her upper parts are brown with black and silver barring, on the underside they are more light and buffish-yellow.
Both sexes have a white spot on the wing bow. They have feathered legs, especially in the cold season for protection against cold. Their toe rows of small, elongated horn tacks provide a snowshoe
effect that led to the German family name "Rauhfußhühner", literally translated as "rough feet chickens".
These so called "courting tacks" make a clear track in the snow in winter. Both sexes can be distinguished very easily by the size of their footprints.
There is a bright red spot of naked skin above each eye. In German hunters' language, these are the so-called "roses".
The small chicks resemble the hen in their cryptic colouration, which is a passive protection against predators. Additionally, they wear black crown feathers. At an age of about 3 months, in late summer, they moult gradually towards the adult plumage of cocks and hens. The egg
s are about the same size and form as chicken eggs, but are more speckled with brown spots.
It is a sedentary species, breeding across northern parts of Europe
and western and central Asia
in mature conifer forest
s with diverse species composition and a relatively open canopy structure.
At one time it could be found in all the taiga
forests of northern and northeastern Eurasia
within the cold temperate latitude
s and the coniferous forest belt in the mountain ranges of warm temperate Europe. The Scottish
population became extinct
, but has been reintroduced from the Swedish
population; in Germany
it is on the "Red list" as a species threatened by extinction, and is no longer found in the lower mountainous areas of Bavaria
; in the Bavarian Forest
, the Black Forest
and the Harz
mountains numbers of surviving Western Capercaillie decline even under massive efforts to breed them in captivity and release them into the wild; and in Switzerland
, in the Swiss Alps
and in the Jura
. The species is extinct in Belgium
. In Ireland
it was common until the seventeenth century, but died out in the eighteenth. In Norway
, Sweden
, Finland
, and Russia
populations are quite big, and it's quite a common bird to see in the forested regions of these countries.
The most serious threats to the species are habitat
degradation, particularly conversion of diverse native forest
into often single-species timber plantation
s, and to birds colliding with fences
erected to keep deer
out of young plantations. Increased numbers of small predators (e.g. Red Fox
) due to the loss of large predators (e.g. Wolf, Brown Bear
) also cause problems in some areas. In some areas, declines are due to excessive hunting, though game laws in many areas have stopped this. It has not been hunted in Scotland
or Germany for over 30 years.
Western Capercaillies are not elegant fliers due to their body weight and short, rounded wings. While taking off they produce a sudden thundering noise that deters predators. Because of their body size and wing span they avoid young and dense forests when flying. While flying they rest in short gliding phases. Their feathers produce a whistling sound.
The Western Capercaillie is adapted to its original habitats - old coniferous forests with a rich interior structure and dense ground vegetation of Vaccinium
species under a light canopy. They mainly feed on Vaccinium species, especially blueberry
, find cover in young tree growth, and use the open spaces when flying. As habitat specialists, they hardly use any other forest types.
Western Capercaillie, especially the hens with young chicks, require a set of particular resources which should occur as parts of a small-scaled patchy mosaic: these are food plants, small insects for the chicks, cover in dense young trees or high ground vegetation, old trees with horizontal branches for sleeping. These criteria are met best in old forest stands with spruce and pine, dense ground vegetation and local tree regrowth on dry slopes in southern to western expositions. These open stands allow flights downslope and the tree regrowth offers cover.
In the lowlands such forest structures developed over centuries by heavy exploitation, especially by the use of litter and grazing livestock
. In the highlands and along the ridges of mountain areas in temperate Europe as well as in the taiga region from Fennoscandia
to Siberia the boreal forests show this open structure due to the harsh climate, hence offering optimal habitats for Capercaillie without human influence. Dense and young forests are avoided as there is neither cover nor food and flight of these large birds is greatly impaired.
, insect
s, grasses and in the winter mostly conifer needles; you can see the food remains in their droppings, which are about 1 cm in diameter and 5–6 cm in length. Most of the year the droppings are of solid consistency, but with the ripening of blueberries
, these dominate the diet and the faeces become formless and bluish-black.
The Western Capercaillie is a highly specialized herbivore
, which feeds almost exclusively on blueberry leaves and berries along with some grass seeds and fresh shoots of sedge
s in summertime. The young chicks are dependent on protein
-rich food in their first weeks and thus mainly prey on insects. Available insect supply is strongly influenced by weather - dry and warm conditions allow a fast growth of the chicks, cold and rainy weather leads to a high mortality among them.
During winter, when a high snow cover prevents access to ground vegetation, the Western Capercaillie spends almost day and night on trees, feeding now on coniferous needles of spruce
, pine
and fir
as well as on buds from beech
and rowan
.
In order to digest this coarse winter food the birds need grit, small stones or gastrolith
s which they actively search for and devour. Together with their very muscular stomach
, these gizzard stones function like a mill and break needles and buds into small particles. Additionally Western Capercaillie have two appendixes
which grow very long in winter. With the aid of symbiotic
bacteria
, the plant material is digested
there. During the short winter days the Western Capercaillie feeds almost constantly and produces a pellet
nearly every 10 minutes.
The abundance of Western Capercaillie depends - like in most other species - on habitat quality, it is highest in sun-flooded open, old mixed forests with spruce, pine, fir and some beech with a rich ground cover of Vaccinium species.
Spring territories are about 25 hectares per bird. Comparable abundances are found in taiga forests. Thus, the Western Capercaillie never had particularly high densities, despite the legends that hunters like to speculate about. Adult cocks are strongly territorial and occupy a range of 50 to 60 hectares optimal habitat. Hen territories are about 40 hectares. The annual range can be several square kilometers (hundreds of hectares) when storms and heavy snowfall force the birds to winter at lower altitudes. Territories of cocks and hens may overlap.
Western Capercaillie are diurnal game, i.e. their activity is limited to the daylight hours. They spend the night time in old trees with horizontal branches. These sleeping trees are used for several nights, they can be mapped easily as the ground under them is covered by pellets.
The hens are ground breeders and spend the night on the nest. As long as the young chicks cannot fly the hen spends the night with them in dense cover on the ground. During winter the hens rarely go down to the ground and most tracks in the snow are from cocks.
At the very beginning of dawn, the tree courting begins on a thick branch of a lookout tree. The cock postures himself with raised and fanned tail feathers, erect neck, beak pointed skywards, wings held out and drooped and starts his typical aria. This consists of four parts, tapping, drum roll, cork pop and gurgling or wheezing.
It is only towards the end of the courting season that the hens arrive on the courting grounds, also called leks, meaning play in Norwegian
. Now the cocks continue courting on the ground, this is the main courting season.
The cock flies from his courting tree to an open space nearby and continues his display. The hens, ready to get mounted, crouch and utter a begging sound. If there are more than one cock on the lek, it is mainly the alpha-cock who copulates with the hens present. In this phase Western Capercaillies are most sensitive against disturbances and even single human observers may cause the hens to fly off and prevent copulation in this very short time span where they are ready for conception.
As traditionally known by hunters, on the other hand, cocks are particularly refractory to otherwise alarming signs during their courting display. This originated a well-known reference to the species in popular culture: in one of the famous films starring Romy Schneider
, young Empress Sissi goes hunting with her uncle. When he pauses to shoot a male Western Capercaillie taking advantage of his apparent numbness, she manages to scare away the bird. This is used as a metaphor for the changes brought about by her womanhood: being herself in love, her newfound awareness of the associated sense of rapture enables her to empathize with the hapless bird (as a younger girl she would have been simply excited by the prospect of a fine hunting trophy).
There is a smaller courting peak in autumn, which serves to delineate the territories for the winter months and the next season.
About three days after copulation the hen starts laying eggs. Within 10 days the clutch is full, the average clutch size is 8 eggs but may amount up to 12, rarely only 4 or 5 eggs. The subsequent breeding lasts about 26–28 days according to weather and altitude.
At the beginning of the breeding season the hens are very sensitive towards disturbances and leave the nest quickly. Towards the end they tolerate disturbances to a certain degree, crouch on their nest which is usually hidden under low branches of a young tree or a broken tree crown. As hatching nears hens sit tighter on the nest and will only flush from the nest if disturbed in very close proximity. Nesting hens rarely spend more than an hour a day off of the nest feeding and as such become somewhat constipated. The presence of a nest nearby is often indicated by distinctively enlarged and malformed droppings known as "clocker droppings". All eggs hatch in close proximity after which the hen and clutch abandon the nest where they are at their most vulnerable. Abandoned nests often contain "caeacal" droppings'; the discharge from the hens appendixes built up over the incubation period.
After hatching the chicks are dependent on getting warmed by the hen. Like all precocial birds the young are fully covered by down feathers at hatching but are not yet able to maintain their body temperature which is 41°C in birds. In cold and rainy weather the chicks need to get warmed by the hen every few minutes and all the night.
They seek food independently and prey mainly on insects, like butterfly
caterpillar
s and pupae (there is a specialised butterfly species whose caterpillars develop only on Vaccinium myrtillus), ant
s, myriapoda
e, ground beetle
s and the like.
They grow rapidly and most of the energy intake is transformed into the protein of the flight musculature (the white flesh around the breast in chickens). At an age of 3–4 weeks they are able to perform their first short flights, from this time on they start to sleep in trees in warm nights. At an age of about 6 weeks they are fully able to maintain their body temperature. The down feathers have been moulted into the immature plumage and at an age of 3 months another moult brings them in their subadult plumage and now the two sexes can be easily distinguished.
From the beginning of September the families start to dissolve. First the young cocks disperse, then the young hens, both sexes may form loose foraging groups over the winter.
As reported by the late Spanish researcher Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente
in his "Fauna" series, the NW Spanish
subspecies Tetrao urogallus cantabricus-an Ice Age remnant-was threatened in the 1960s by commercial gathering of holly
fruit-bearing branches for sale as Christmas ornaments -a practice imported from Anglo-Saxon
or Germanic
countries.
In Scotland
, the population has declined greatly since the 1960s because of deer fencing, predation and lack of suitable habitat (Caledonian Forest
). The population plummeted from a high of 10,000 pairs in the 1960s to less than 1000 birds in 1999. It was even named as the bird most likely to become extinct in the UK
by 2015. However, due to the hard work of the RSPB and other organisations it may now be making a modest recovery.
Grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes. They are sometimes considered a family Tetraonidae, though the American Ornithologists' Union and many others include grouse as a subfamily Tetraoninae in the family Phasianidae...
family, reaching over 100 cm in length and 6.7 kg in weight. The largest one ever recorded in captivity had a weight of 7.2 kg. (15.9 lbs). Found across Europe and Asia, it is renowned for its mating display.
Taxonomy
Also spelt Capercailzie (the "z" letter representing a yoghYogh
The letter yogh , was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing y and various velar phonemes. It was derived from the Old English form of the letter g.In Middle English writing, tailed z came to be indistinguishable from yogh....
), this species' name is derived from the Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
capull coille, meaning "horse of the woods".
It was first described by Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current binomial name.
Its closest relative is the Black-billed Capercaillie
Black-billed Capercaillie
The Black-billed Capercaillie is a large grouse species closely related to the more widespread Western Capercaillie. It is a sedentary species which breeds in the larch taiga forests of eastern Russia as well as parts of northern Mongolia and China.The appearance of the male Black-billed...
, Tetrao parvirostris, which breeds in the larch taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
forests of eastern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and parts of northern Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Subspecies
There are several races, listed from west to east:- T. urogallus cantabricusCantabrian CapercaillieThe Cantabrian Capercaillie is a subspecies of the Western Capercaillie in the grouse family Tetraonidae.-Description:...
(Cantabrian Capercaillie) - NW SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... - T. urogallus aquitanicus - PyreneesPyreneesThe Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
- T. urogallus major - Central Europe (Alps to EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
) - T. urogallus rudolfi - Southeast Europe (BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
to southwest UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) - T. urogallus urogallus - ScandinaviaScandinaviaScandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... - T. urogallus karelicus - FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, KareliaKareliaKarelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden... - T. urogallus lonnbergi - Kola PeninsulaKola PeninsulaThe Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast...
- T. urogallus pleskei - BelarusBelarusBelarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, central European RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... - T. urogallus obsoletus - Northern European Russia
- T. urogallus volgensis - Southeast European Russia
- T. urogallus uralensis - Ural Mts., western SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
The races show increasing amounts of white on the underparts of males from west to east, almost wholly black with only a few white spots underneath in western and central Europe to nearly pure white in Siberia, where the Black-billed Capercaillie occurs. Variation in females is much less. The native Scottish population, which became extinct between 1770 and 1785, was probably also a distinct race, though it was never formally described as such; the same is also likely of the extinct Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
population.
Hybrids
Western Capercaillies are known to hybridise occasionally with Black GrouseBlack Grouse
The Black Grouse or Blackgame is a large bird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, breeding across northern Eurasia in moorland and bog areas near to woodland, mostly boreal...
(these hybrids being known by the German name Rackelhahn) and the closely related Black-billed Capercaillie.
Description
Male and female Western Capercaillie - the cocks and the hens - can be discriminated easily by their size and colouration. The cock is much bigger, weighing 3.3 to 6.7 kg (7.3-14.8 lbs). The largest one ever recorded in captivity had a weight of 7.2 kg. (15.9 lbs). He can range from 74 to 115 cm (29 to 45 in) in length and has a wingspan of about 1.2 m (3.9 ft). The body featherFeather
Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...
s are coloured dark grey to dark brown, breast feathers are dark green metallic shining. The belly and undertail coverts vary from black to white depending on race (see below).
The hen is much smaller, weighing about half as much as the cock. Her body from beak to tail is approximately 54–64 cm (21–25 in) long, the wingspan is 70 cm (28 in) and she weighs 1.5-2.5 kg (3.3-5.5 lbs). Feathers on her upper parts are brown with black and silver barring, on the underside they are more light and buffish-yellow.
Both sexes have a white spot on the wing bow. They have feathered legs, especially in the cold season for protection against cold. Their toe rows of small, elongated horn tacks provide a snowshoe
Snowshoe
A snowshoe is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes work by distributing the weight of the person over a larger area so that the person's foot does not sink completely into the snow, a quality called "flotation"....
effect that led to the German family name "Rauhfußhühner", literally translated as "rough feet chickens".
These so called "courting tacks" make a clear track in the snow in winter. Both sexes can be distinguished very easily by the size of their footprints.
There is a bright red spot of naked skin above each eye. In German hunters' language, these are the so-called "roses".
The small chicks resemble the hen in their cryptic colouration, which is a passive protection against predators. Additionally, they wear black crown feathers. At an age of about 3 months, in late summer, they moult gradually towards the adult plumage of cocks and hens. The egg
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
s are about the same size and form as chicken eggs, but are more speckled with brown spots.
Distribution and habitat
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and western and central Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
in mature conifer forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s with diverse species composition and a relatively open canopy structure.
At one time it could be found in all the taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
forests of northern and northeastern Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
within the cold temperate latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
s and the coniferous forest belt in the mountain ranges of warm temperate Europe. The Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
population became extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
, but has been reintroduced from the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
population; in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
it is on the "Red list" as a species threatened by extinction, and is no longer found in the lower mountainous areas of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
; in the Bavarian Forest
Bavarian Forest
thumb|The village of Zell in the Bavarian ForestThe Bavarian Forest is a wooded low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany. It extends along the Czech border and is continued on the Czech side by the Šumava . Geographically the Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest are sections of the same mountain range...
, the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
and the Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
mountains numbers of surviving Western Capercaillie decline even under massive efforts to breed them in captivity and release them into the wild; and in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, in the Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
and in the Jura
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...
. The species is extinct in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. In Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
it was common until the seventeenth century, but died out in the eighteenth. In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
populations are quite big, and it's quite a common bird to see in the forested regions of these countries.
The most serious threats to the species are habitat
Habitat (ecology)
A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism...
degradation, particularly conversion of diverse native forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
into often single-species timber plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s, and to birds colliding with fences
Agricultural fencing
In agriculture, fences are used to keep animals in or out of an area. They can be made from a wide variety of materials, depending on terrain, location and animals to be confined...
erected to keep deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
out of young plantations. Increased numbers of small predators (e.g. Red Fox
Red Fox
The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...
) due to the loss of large predators (e.g. Wolf, Brown Bear
Brown Bear
The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...
) also cause problems in some areas. In some areas, declines are due to excessive hunting, though game laws in many areas have stopped this. It has not been hunted in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
or Germany for over 30 years.
Western Capercaillies are not elegant fliers due to their body weight and short, rounded wings. While taking off they produce a sudden thundering noise that deters predators. Because of their body size and wing span they avoid young and dense forests when flying. While flying they rest in short gliding phases. Their feathers produce a whistling sound.
Behaviour and ecology
Vaccinium
Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae. The fruit of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry or whortleberry, lingonberry or cowberry, and huckleberry...
species under a light canopy. They mainly feed on Vaccinium species, especially blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, find cover in young tree growth, and use the open spaces when flying. As habitat specialists, they hardly use any other forest types.
Western Capercaillie, especially the hens with young chicks, require a set of particular resources which should occur as parts of a small-scaled patchy mosaic: these are food plants, small insects for the chicks, cover in dense young trees or high ground vegetation, old trees with horizontal branches for sleeping. These criteria are met best in old forest stands with spruce and pine, dense ground vegetation and local tree regrowth on dry slopes in southern to western expositions. These open stands allow flights downslope and the tree regrowth offers cover.
In the lowlands such forest structures developed over centuries by heavy exploitation, especially by the use of litter and grazing livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
. In the highlands and along the ridges of mountain areas in temperate Europe as well as in the taiga region from Fennoscandia
Fennoscandia
Fennoscandia and Fenno-Scandinavia are geographic and geological terms used to describe the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia and Finland...
to Siberia the boreal forests show this open structure due to the harsh climate, hence offering optimal habitats for Capercaillie without human influence. Dense and young forests are avoided as there is neither cover nor food and flight of these large birds is greatly impaired.
Diet
The Western Capercaillie lives on a variety of food types, including buds, leaves, berriesBerry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
, insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, grasses and in the winter mostly conifer needles; you can see the food remains in their droppings, which are about 1 cm in diameter and 5–6 cm in length. Most of the year the droppings are of solid consistency, but with the ripening of blueberries
Blueberry
Blueberries are flowering plants of the genus Vaccinium with dark-blue berries and are perennial...
, these dominate the diet and the faeces become formless and bluish-black.
The Western Capercaillie is a highly specialized herbivore
Herbivore
Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
, which feeds almost exclusively on blueberry leaves and berries along with some grass seeds and fresh shoots of sedge
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
s in summertime. The young chicks are dependent on protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
-rich food in their first weeks and thus mainly prey on insects. Available insect supply is strongly influenced by weather - dry and warm conditions allow a fast growth of the chicks, cold and rainy weather leads to a high mortality among them.
During winter, when a high snow cover prevents access to ground vegetation, the Western Capercaillie spends almost day and night on trees, feeding now on coniferous needles of spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
, pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
and fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
as well as on buds from beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
and rowan
Rowan
The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or small trees in genus Sorbus of family Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies...
.
In order to digest this coarse winter food the birds need grit, small stones or gastrolith
Gastrolith
A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stones, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. The grain size depends upon the size of the animal and the gastrolith's...
s which they actively search for and devour. Together with their very muscular stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
, these gizzard stones function like a mill and break needles and buds into small particles. Additionally Western Capercaillie have two appendixes
Vermiform appendix
The appendix is a blind-ended tube connected to the cecum , from which it develops embryologically. The cecum is a pouchlike structure of the colon...
which grow very long in winter. With the aid of symbiotic
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
, the plant material is digested
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
there. During the short winter days the Western Capercaillie feeds almost constantly and produces a pellet
Pellet (ornithology)
A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth...
nearly every 10 minutes.
The abundance of Western Capercaillie depends - like in most other species - on habitat quality, it is highest in sun-flooded open, old mixed forests with spruce, pine, fir and some beech with a rich ground cover of Vaccinium species.
Spring territories are about 25 hectares per bird. Comparable abundances are found in taiga forests. Thus, the Western Capercaillie never had particularly high densities, despite the legends that hunters like to speculate about. Adult cocks are strongly territorial and occupy a range of 50 to 60 hectares optimal habitat. Hen territories are about 40 hectares. The annual range can be several square kilometers (hundreds of hectares) when storms and heavy snowfall force the birds to winter at lower altitudes. Territories of cocks and hens may overlap.
Western Capercaillie are diurnal game, i.e. their activity is limited to the daylight hours. They spend the night time in old trees with horizontal branches. These sleeping trees are used for several nights, they can be mapped easily as the ground under them is covered by pellets.
The hens are ground breeders and spend the night on the nest. As long as the young chicks cannot fly the hen spends the night with them in dense cover on the ground. During winter the hens rarely go down to the ground and most tracks in the snow are from cocks.
Courting and reproduction
The courting season of the Western Capercaillie starts according to spring weather progress, vegetation development and altitude between March and April and lasts until May or June. Three-quarters of this long courting season is mere territorial competition between neighbouring cocks or cocks on the same courting ground.At the very beginning of dawn, the tree courting begins on a thick branch of a lookout tree. The cock postures himself with raised and fanned tail feathers, erect neck, beak pointed skywards, wings held out and drooped and starts his typical aria. This consists of four parts, tapping, drum roll, cork pop and gurgling or wheezing.
It is only towards the end of the courting season that the hens arrive on the courting grounds, also called leks, meaning play in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
. Now the cocks continue courting on the ground, this is the main courting season.
The cock flies from his courting tree to an open space nearby and continues his display. The hens, ready to get mounted, crouch and utter a begging sound. If there are more than one cock on the lek, it is mainly the alpha-cock who copulates with the hens present. In this phase Western Capercaillies are most sensitive against disturbances and even single human observers may cause the hens to fly off and prevent copulation in this very short time span where they are ready for conception.
As traditionally known by hunters, on the other hand, cocks are particularly refractory to otherwise alarming signs during their courting display. This originated a well-known reference to the species in popular culture: in one of the famous films starring Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
, young Empress Sissi goes hunting with her uncle. When he pauses to shoot a male Western Capercaillie taking advantage of his apparent numbness, she manages to scare away the bird. This is used as a metaphor for the changes brought about by her womanhood: being herself in love, her newfound awareness of the associated sense of rapture enables her to empathize with the hapless bird (as a younger girl she would have been simply excited by the prospect of a fine hunting trophy).
There is a smaller courting peak in autumn, which serves to delineate the territories for the winter months and the next season.
About three days after copulation the hen starts laying eggs. Within 10 days the clutch is full, the average clutch size is 8 eggs but may amount up to 12, rarely only 4 or 5 eggs. The subsequent breeding lasts about 26–28 days according to weather and altitude.
At the beginning of the breeding season the hens are very sensitive towards disturbances and leave the nest quickly. Towards the end they tolerate disturbances to a certain degree, crouch on their nest which is usually hidden under low branches of a young tree or a broken tree crown. As hatching nears hens sit tighter on the nest and will only flush from the nest if disturbed in very close proximity. Nesting hens rarely spend more than an hour a day off of the nest feeding and as such become somewhat constipated. The presence of a nest nearby is often indicated by distinctively enlarged and malformed droppings known as "clocker droppings". All eggs hatch in close proximity after which the hen and clutch abandon the nest where they are at their most vulnerable. Abandoned nests often contain "caeacal" droppings'; the discharge from the hens appendixes built up over the incubation period.
After hatching the chicks are dependent on getting warmed by the hen. Like all precocial birds the young are fully covered by down feathers at hatching but are not yet able to maintain their body temperature which is 41°C in birds. In cold and rainy weather the chicks need to get warmed by the hen every few minutes and all the night.
They seek food independently and prey mainly on insects, like butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
s and pupae (there is a specialised butterfly species whose caterpillars develop only on Vaccinium myrtillus), ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s, myriapoda
Myriapoda
Myriapoda is a subphylum of arthropods containing millipedes, centipedes, and others. The group contains 13,000 species, all of which are terrestrial...
e, ground beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s and the like.
They grow rapidly and most of the energy intake is transformed into the protein of the flight musculature (the white flesh around the breast in chickens). At an age of 3–4 weeks they are able to perform their first short flights, from this time on they start to sleep in trees in warm nights. At an age of about 6 weeks they are fully able to maintain their body temperature. The down feathers have been moulted into the immature plumage and at an age of 3 months another moult brings them in their subadult plumage and now the two sexes can be easily distinguished.
From the beginning of September the families start to dissolve. First the young cocks disperse, then the young hens, both sexes may form loose foraging groups over the winter.
Status and conservation
This species has an estimated range of 1-10 million square kilometers (0.38-3.8 million sq mi.) and a population of between 1.5 and 2 million individuals in Europe alone. There is some evidence of a population decline, but the species is not believed to approach the IUCN Red List thresholds of a population decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations, and is therefore is evaluated as Least Concern.As reported by the late Spanish researcher Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente
Félix Samuel Rodríguez de la Fuente was a Spanish naturalist and broadcaster. He is best known for the highly successful and influential TV series El Hombre y la Tierra . Degree in medicine and self-taught in biology, was a multifaceted charismatic figure whose influence has endured despite the...
in his "Fauna" series, the NW Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
subspecies Tetrao urogallus cantabricus-an Ice Age remnant-was threatened in the 1960s by commercial gathering of holly
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
fruit-bearing branches for sale as Christmas ornaments -a practice imported from Anglo-Saxon
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
or Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
countries.
In Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the population has declined greatly since the 1960s because of deer fencing, predation and lack of suitable habitat (Caledonian Forest
Caledonian Forest
The Caledonian Forest is the name of a type of woodland that once covered vast areas of Scotland. Today, however, only 1% of the original forest survives, covering in 84 locations. The forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife, much of which is not found elsewhere in the British...
). The population plummeted from a high of 10,000 pairs in the 1960s to less than 1000 birds in 1999. It was even named as the bird most likely to become extinct in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by 2015. However, due to the hard work of the RSPB and other organisations it may now be making a modest recovery.
External links
- Capercaillie mating game on the Internet Bird Collection
- A to Z of UK Birds
- Aigas Field Centre Capercaillie Ecology and breeding programme pages
- Western Capercaillie pictures in nature photographer Janne Heimonen's photo gallery