Capercaillie & Deer – Speyside

We have just completed a report that looks at changes in deer population abundance in the Aviemore area over the past 10 years. As part of this work, we were also tasked with looking at Capercaillie distribution and abundance. Indirectly, as they are present in a large part of the hill ground, we also ended up looking at pattern of reindeer occupancy using dung counts too. It has been such an interesting project, in particular being able to compare capercaillie and deer occupancy patterns to see what spatial relationships are apparent. It appears to us that dung counting could be a useful tool in the armoury for monitoring Capercaillie populations – so watch this space…