Red Grouse

Scottish red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica )

The Red Grouse is occurring in the British Isles subspecies of grouse moor, a species of the order Galliformes.

Description

The bird is about 40 inches tall and is different from other ptarmigan by the lack of a white winter dress. It is dark reddish brown and has no white, but dark brown wings. The slightly smaller female is more brightly colored than the male, and generally carries the red grouse in the summer a lighter color than in winter. Moreover, occurring on Irish specimens are yellowish than the common form in the UK and are therefore sometimes separated as a distinct subspecies Lagopus lagopus Hibernicus.

Way of life

It lives in marshes and heaths, where Cranberry and Bilberry occur. In autumn it is looking to lower layers and stubble. It nests preferably in the heath. The male calls during courtship guttural "go- bäck Baek - GMA - GMA ."

Occurrence

The red grouse inhabited Scotland, northern England, Wales, Ireland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Islands. As a popular hunting game, it was also located in areas where it originally did not occur. The population is estimated at 250,000 pairs, of which 1,000 to 5,000 pairs in Ireland.

Reintroduction in Germany

At the beginning of the 1890s put the textile manufacturer Scheibler from Monschau about 70 couples on the moors of the time the German Reich belonging High Fens. On January 9, 1902, the Prussian House decided to introduce a closed season. In 1904 was 40 birds succumbed to three hunters in a day. The stock was valued at that time at about 1000 Willow ptarmigan.

1911 decimated large fires the occurrence and from 1930 began a sharp decline. Finally, the grouse came in the now belonging to Belgium area off only at the Botrange where Günther Niethammer could always observed from 1960 to 1962 at a specific site. However, at the beginning of the 70s they disappeared completely.