| UPLANDS - GAME COUNTS Figure 3


Average annual worm burden for autumn shot adult red grouse from 8-18 moors in northern England 1990-2016


7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 KEY FINDINGS 2,000


July densities remained high in northern England, but fell by 23% in Scotland. Worm burdens following effective use of medicated grit remain very low.


Black grouse breeding success was only moderate, but suffi- cient to retain population sizes.


David Newborn David Howarth Mike Richardson Phil Warren David Baines


1,000 0 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015


Strongyle worms Parasitic worm burdens in grouse have again remained very low across our sample of core sites, in both England and Scotland, owing to the widespread use of medicated grit. Grouse population crashes caused by strongyle worms appear to be consigned to history on moors where medicated grit is effectively deployed. With the majority of moors in England and Scotland using medicated grit, strongyle worm burdens remain at an all-time low. The average number of worms per shot adult bird was below 100 worms for both England (see Figure 3) and Scotland (see Figure 4) again this year, with 20% of the adult samples containing no worms in England and 27% in Scotland.


Black grouse In spring 2016, we sampled black grouse attendance at 55% of known leks in northern England. In the last national survey, these leks supported 67% of the English black grouse population of 1,437 males. Following good breeding in 2014, numbers attending these leks in 2015 had increased by 14%. However, subsequent poor


Figure 4


Average annual worm burden for autumn shot adult red grouse from 3-17 moors in Scotland 1990-2016


10,000


8,000


6,000


4,000


2,000


0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 46 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016 www.gwct.org.uk


Mean worm burden (± 1 se)


Mean worm burden (± 1 se)


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