Rare Scottish bird could face extinction - report
© 2000 Reuters Limited
August 31, 2000
LONDON - A rare Scottish bird could be facing extinction because Britain is not doing enough to protect it, the New Scientist magazine reported yesterday.
The European Commission has asked Britain to justify using high wire forest fences which can kill the grouse-like capercaillie, known as the tetrao urogallus, and questioned whether conservation areas set aside for the bird were adequate.
"The Commission is concerned that the United Kingdom authorities may not be doing all they can to ensure adequate protection of the capercaillie," George Kremlis of the Commission's Environment Directorate said.
Numbers of the bird in Scotland have plummeted to 1,000, one 20th of the population of the mid-1970s. Scientists say poor weather has reduced the bird's supply of plant food.
Robert Moss, a former senior scientist at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in Banchory, Scotland, said the six special protection areas, covering a few thousand hectares, must be expanded tenfold.
He accused Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), responsible for the zones, of being "defensive and negligent".
But the SNH told the New Scientist it was committed to protecting the capercaillie, saying that its work was based on sound scientific principles.