Grouse season well underway and numbers are at the lowest in memory. Dr Matthew Balfour BVM&S MRCVS of St David’s Gamebird Services describes the main causes of the decline, and what can be done to support the birds.
Unfortunately, as many of you will already be aware, it is a very poor season for grouse this year and that’s the story that is being repeated across Scotland and the north of England now. The numbers are as low as I can ever remember, and I have been asked by several gamekeepers if there is any new disease out there that we’re not aware of that is killing off the birds. From what we can see, that’s not the case. However, as with any challenge, we need to understand the root causes of this decline and the ways in which we can do our bit to support the health and welfare of the birds we do have, in order to sustain their future.
At the start of the spring, many were reporting relatively good grouse broods, but later, those numbers of young birds started to deteriorate, which has brought us to where we are now. There is, as always, likely a combination of causes, but the biggest by far is the weather. This year, we had a very unseasonably cool, wet, long spring scattered with some very heavy downpours of rain – all while the birds were quite young. Being exposed to such drastic rainfall before their feathers are fully developed is a huge challenge for the birds and a can by itself cause losses.
There is a knock-on effect as a result; the bad weather results in poor food supply and poor conditions for the birds meaning they have depleted body reserves. They then become weaker and less resilient, and more susceptible to disease of any kind. The ground this Summer has also been wet for a prolonged period; the perfect environment for worms and Coccidia to proliferate. From our early testing, we have seen quite high worm burdens in many areas, and tapeworm in a lot of birds too.
So essentially, from what I am seeing on the ground, the root cause for the poor grouse numbers this year is the weather and its implications. While we can’t do anything about the weather, we can do our best to keep the grouse in good health so that their breeding potential is optimised, they’re more robust and better able to cope with adverse weather conditions in the future.
We need to control worm burdens with regular monitoring and worm counts so that keepers are always aware of the situation on their moors. To do this we need to use targeted medicated grit at times and places where it’s actually needed in order to get the best treatment outcome. At the same time, care should be taken to keep grit stations as dry and free of contamination as possible whilst ensuring they are moved at least annually to prevent a build-up of disease. As a reminder, medicated grit should be removed no later than 28 days before shooting starts.
All in all, whilst some factors are out of our control, we are all doing our best to understand and address the causes of the notably low grouse numbers. We hope that as the year progresses we will be able to build a fuller clinical picture by gathering more data.