Monday 29 July 2013

Capercaillie vs Pine Marten

An article in The Scotsman highlights concerns about the future of Capercaillie that are resulting in contrasting views on what action to take.   GWCT monitoring indicates that the 'species is in rapid and ongoing decline' while the pine marten population has increased.  Opinion about what to do varies between: catch up pine martens during the capercaillie breeding season and release them later in the year, catch up and translocate them, provide diversionary food dumps, or flood Scotland with imported birds from Scandinavia to saturate the pine marten need.

Is this a case where a decision needs to be made to do something on the basis that some action must be better than none?  I fear there is a danger that contrasting views will produce inaction, which will mean that all the effort will end up just overseeing the demise of Capercaillie.

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