Grouse decline worries hunters

Press, 10 October 1984, Page 21

Grouse decline worries hunters

From

DIANA DEKKER in

London

It is just as well Prince Charles is now said, to be a vegetarian and hanging up his hunting guns. There are fears that Scotland’s grouse population could disappear almost overnight and put paid to a multi-million pound industry. The Game Conservancy has announced that it will launch a £300,000 appeal to finance research into the reason for the long-term grouse decline. Scottish landowners and sportsmen fear that the grouse could disappear as fast as they disappeared in Ireland during the late 19605, when there was an estimated 90 per cent reduction during a six-year period.

The game Conservancy has appointed Mr Peter Hudson as chief grouse biologist to begin research into the decline as an extension of his five-year study of high-density grouse populations in the north of England. Between 1980 and 1983 the number of grouse on the moors in the Borders was down almost 50 per cent compared with the 1950-75 period. Galloway moors have lost almost 85 per cent of their grouse in the past 10 years and Perthshire 65 per cent. Between World War I and World War II Perthshireand Tayside moors averaged 150 brace annually per square mile. The grouse season opened in Scotland on August 13 and will end on December 10.