The Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), also known as the Wood Grouse or more specifically Western Capercaillie is the largest member of the grouse family, reaching over 100 cm in length and 4 kg in weight. Found across northern Europe and Asia, it is renowned for its mating display.
Also spelt Capercailzie, its name is derived from the Gaelic capull coille, meaning "horse of the woods".
Distribution and habitat
It is a sedentary species, breeding across northern parts of Europe and western and central Asia in mature conifer forests with diverse species composition and a relatively open canopy structure.
At one time it could be found in all the taiga forests of northern and northeastern Eurasia within the cold temperate latitudes and the coniferous forest belt in the mountain ranges of warm temperate Europe. The Scottish population became extinct, but has been reintroduced from the Swedish population; in Germany it is on the "Red list" as a species threatened by extinction, and is no longer found in the lower mountainous areas of Bavaria; in Belgium, it can still be seen in the Hautes Fagnes. In the Bavarian Forest, the Black Forest and the Harz mountains numbers of surviving Capercaillies decline even under massive efforts to breed them in captivity and release them into the wild.
The most serious threats to the species are habitat degradation, particularly conversion of diverse native forest into often single-species timber plantations, and to birds colliding with fences erected to keep deer out of young plantations. Increased numbers of small predators (e.g. Red Fox) due to the loss of large predators (e.g. Wolf, Brown Bear) also cause problems in some areas. In some areas, declines are due to excessive hunting, though game laws in many areas have stopped this. It has not been hunted in Scotland or Germany for over 30 years.
Capercaillies are not elegant fliers due to their body weight and short, rounded wings. While taking off they produce a sudden thundering noise that deters predators. Because of their body size and wing span they avoid young and dense forests when flying. While flying they rest in short gliding phases. Their feathers produce a whistling sound.
Behaviour and ecology
The Fighting Capercaillies, 1886, by Ferdinand von Wright, one of Finland's best known paintings, shows the Capercaillie's distinctive behaviour.
The Fighting Capercaillies, 1886, by Ferdinand von Wright, one of Finland's best known paintings, shows the Capercaillie's distinctive behaviour.
The Capercaillie is adapted to its original habitats - old coniferous forests with a rich interior structure and dense ground vegetation of Vaccinium species under a light canopy. They mainly feed on Vaccinium species, especially blueberry, find cover in young tree growth, and use the open spaces when flying. As habitat specialists, they hardly use any other forest types.
Capercaillie, especially the hens with young chicks, require a set of particular resources which should occur as parts of a small-scaled patchy mosaic: these are food plants, small insects for the chicks, cover in dense young trees or high ground vegetation, old trees with horizontal branches for sleeping. These criteria are met best in old forest stands with spruce and pine, dense ground vegetation and local tree regrowth on dry slopes in southern to western expositions. These open stands allow flights downslope and the tree regrowth offers cover.
In the lowlands such forest structures developed over centuries by heavy exploitation, especially by the use of litter and grazing livestock. In the highlands and along the ridges of mountain areas in temperate Europe as well as in the taiga region from Fennoscandia to Siberia the boreal forests show this open structure due to the harsh climate, hence offering optimal habitats for Capercaillie without human influence. Dense and young forests are avoided as there is neither cover nor food and flight of these large birds is greatly impaired.
Diet
The Capercaillie lives on a variety of food types, including buds, leaves, berries, insects, grasses and in the winter mostly conifer needles; you can see the food remains in their droppings, which are about 1 cm in diameter and 5-6 cm in length. Most of the year the droppings are of solid consistency, but with the ripening of blueberries, these dominate the diet and the faeces become formless and bluish-black.
The Capercaillie is a highly specialized herbivore, which feeds almost exclusively on blueberry leaves and berries along with some grass seeds and fresh shoots of sedges in summertime. The young chicks are dependent on protein-rich food in their first weeks and thus mainly prey on insects. Available insect supply is strongly influenced by weather - dry and warm conditions allow a fast growth of the chicks, cold and rainy weather leads to a high mortality among them.
During winter, when a high snow cover prevents access to ground vegetation, the Capercaillie spends almost day and night on trees, feeding now on coniferous needles of spruce, pine and fir as well as on buds from beech and rowan.
In order to digest this coarse winter food the birds need grit, small stones or gastroliths which they actively search for and devour. Together with their very muscular stomach, these gizzard stones function like a mill and break needles and buds into small particles. Additionally Capercaillie have two appendixes which grow very long in winter. With the aid of symbiotic bacteria, the plant material is digested there. During the short winter days the Capercaillie feeds almost constantly and produces a pellet nearly every 10 minutes.
The abundance of Capercaillie depends - like in most other species - on habitat quality, it is highest in sun-flooded open, old mixed forests with spruce, pine, fir and some beech with a rich ground cover of Vaccinium species.
Spring territories are about 250,000 square metres per bird. Comparable abundances are found in taiga forests. Thus, Capercaillie never had particularly high densities, despite the legends that hunters like to speculate about. Adult cocks are strongly territorial and occupy a range of 500,000 to 600,000 square metres optimal habitat. Hen territories are about 400,000 square metres. The annual range can be several square kilometers when storms and heavy snowfall force the birds to winter at lower altitudes. Territories of cocks and hens may overlap.
Capercaillie are diurnal game, i.e. their activity is limited to the daylight hours. They spend the night time in old trees with horizontal branches. These sleeping trees are used for several nights, they can be mapped easily as the ground under them is covered by pellets.
The hens are ground breeders and spend the night on the nest. As long as the young chicks cannot fly the hen spends the night with them in dense cover on the ground. During winter the hens rarely go down to the ground and most tracks in the snow are from cocks.
Courting and reproduction
The courting season of the Capercaillie starts according to spring weather progress, vegetation development and altitude between March and April and lasts until May or June. Three-quarters of this long courting season is mere territorial competition between neighbouring cocks or cocks on the same courting ground.
At the very beginning of dawn, the tree courting begins on a thick branch of a lookout tree. The cock postures himself with raised and fanned tail feathers, recked neck, beak pointed skywards, wings held out and drooped and starts his typical aria. This consists of four parts, tapping, drum roll, cork pop and gurgling or wheezing.
It is only towards the end of the courting season that the hens arrive on the courting grounds, also called leks, meaning dance in Norwegian. Now the cocks continue courting on the ground, this is the main courting season.
The cock flies from his courting tree to an open space nearby and continues his display. The hens, ready to get mounted, crouch and utter a begging sound. If there are more than one cock on the lek, it is mainly the alpha-cock who copulates with the hens present. In this phase Capercaillies are most sensitive against disturbances and even single human observers may cause the hens to fly off and prevent copulation in this very short time span where they are ready for conception.
As traditionally known by hunters, on the other hand, cocks are particularly refractory to otherwise alarming signs during their courting display. This originated a well-known reference to the species in popular culture: in one of the famous films starring Romy Schneider, young Empress Sissi goes hunting with her uncle. When he pauses to shoot a male Capercaillie taking advantage of his apparent numbness, she manages to scare away the bird. This is used as a metaphor for the changes brought about by her womanhood: being herself in love, her newfound awareness of the associated sense of rapture enables her to empathize with the hapless bird (as a younger girl she would have been simply excited by the prospect of a fine hunting trophy).
There is a smaller courting peak in autumn, which serves to delineate the territories for the winter months and the next season.
About three days after copulation the hen starts laying eggs. Within 10 days the clutch is full, the average clutch size is 8 eggs but may amount up to 12, rarely only 4 or 5 eggs. The subsequent breeding lasts about 26-28 days according to weather and altitude.
At the beginning of the breeding season the hens are very sensitive towards disturbances and leave the nest quickly. Towards the end they tolerate disturbances to a certain degree, crouch on their nest which is usually hidden under low branches of a young tree or a broken tree crown. As hatching nears hens sit tighter on the nest and will only flush from the nest if disturbed in very close proximity. Nesting hens rarely spend more than an hour a day off of the nest feeding and as such become somewhat constipated. The presence of a nest nearby is often indicated by distinctively enlarged and malformed droppings known as "clocker droppings". All eggs hatch in close proximity after which the hen and clutch abandon the nest where they are at their most vulnerable. Abandoned nests often contain "caeacal" droppings'; the discharge from the hens appendixes built up over the incubation period.
After hatching the chicks are dependent on getting warmed by the hen. Like all precocial birds the young are fully covered by down feathers at hatching but are not yet able to maintain their body temperature which is 41°C in birds. In cold and rainy weather the chicks need to get warmed by the hen every few minutes and all the night.
They seek food independently and prey mainly on insects, like butterfly caterpillars and pupae (there is a specialised butterfly species whose caterpillars develop only on Vaccinium myrtillus), ants, myriapodae, ground beetles and the like.
They grow rapidly and most of the energy intake is transformed into the protein of the flight musculature (the white flesh around the breast in chickens). At an age of 3-4 weeks they are able to perform their first short flights, from this time on they start to sleep in trees in warm nights. At an age of about 6 weeks they are fully able to maintain their body temperature. The down feathers have been moulted into the immature plumage and at an age of 3 months another moult brings them in their subadult plumage and now the two sexes can be easily distinguished.
From the beginning of September the families start to dissolve. First the young cocks disperse, then the young hens, both sexes may form loose foraging groups over the winter.
Conservation
The main causes for the recent decline of Capercaillie all over their range are climate change and nitrogen oxide emissions with their massive effects on vegetation development, intensified forestry and increasing disturbance by tourism and recreational use.
Conservation measures usually are confined to forestry and hunting practices. By setting aside special game sanctuaries together with regulations of banning to leave paths and forest roads the human impact can be canalised especially in the most sensitive periods. Additionally predators are to be rigorously controlled.
It is imperative to conserve and create stable and mixed forests over large areas which fulfill all habitat requirements of Capercaillies. Especially the amount of old, open forests with rich ground vegetation dominated by Vaccinium must be kept as high as possible, additionally habitat corridors and habitat stepping stones must be created between those old forest tracts which are used by Capercaillies.
Serious dangers come from deer fences which are responsible for 30% of all casualties in young Capercaillie. Metal fences in higher altitudes should be replaced by wooden substitutes or conspiciuously marked.
Tourists can contribute to Capercaillie conservation by: staying on paths, especially during the breeding and fledging seasons from April through the end of July, also in winter, staying on paths in the game sanctuaries; not letting dogs stroll freely around; leaving no waste; no excursions between dusk and dawn; no further development or intensifying of touristic infrastructures in highest altitudes and along the ridges of the mountains.
As reported by the late Spanish researcher Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente in his "Fauna" series, the NW Spanish subspecies Tetrao urogallus cantabricus-an Ice Age remnant-was threatened in the 1960s by commercial gathering of holly fruit-bearing branches for sale as Christmas ornaments -a practice imported from Anglo-Saxon or Germanic countries.
The late Alfred Brehm wrote in 1876 in his famous "Thierleben" (Animals' Life): "The largest and most distinguished of all grouse species is the Capercaillie, the grace of our forests, the joy of the gentle hunter".
It is only by joint and coordinated conservation efforts over large areas that we will be able to maintain this key species of mountain forests as part of our natural heritage.
In Scotland, the population has declined greatly since the 1960s because of deer fencing, predation and lack of suitable habitat (Caledonian Forest). The population plummeted from a high of 10,000 pairs in the 1960s to less than 1000 birds in 1999. It was even named as the bird most likely to become extinct in the UK by 2015. However, due to the hard work of the RSPB and other organisations it may now be making a modest recovery.
Hybrids
Capercaillie are known to hybridise occasionally with Black Grouse (these hybrids being known by the German name Rackelhahn), Common Pheasant and the closely related Black-billed Capercaillie.
Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus)
Grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes. Grouse inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. They are game and are sometimes hunted for food.
In all but one species (the Willow Grouse), males are polygamous, and many species have elaborate courtship displays. These heavily built birds have legs feathered to the toes. Most species are year-round residents, and do not migrate.
These birds feed mainly on vegetables, but will also feed on insects, especially when feeding young.
The American Ornithologists' Union includes grouse (Tetraonidae) as a subfamily of Phasianidae. Based on mtDNA sequences, some systematists believe that certain species belong in new genera
emu
Emu or Dromaius novaehollandiae, is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is also the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. The soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds reach up to 2 m (6 ft) in height. The Emu is common over most of mainland Australia, although it avoids heavily populated areas, dense forest and arid areas. Emus can travel great distances at a fast, economical trot and, if necessary, can sprint at 50 km/h (30 mph) for some distance at a time.[3] They are opportunistically nomadic and may travel long distances to find food; they feed on a variety of plants and insects.
Conservation status
Emus were used as a source of food by indigenous Australians and early European settlers. Aborigines used a variety of techniques to catch the bird, including spearing them while they drank at waterholes, poisoning waterholes, catching Emus in nets, and attracting Emus by imitating their calls or with a ball of feathers and rags dangled from a tree.[17] Europeans killed Emus to provide food and to remove them if they interfered with farming or invaded settlements in search of water during drought. An extreme example of this was the Emu War in Western Australia in 1932, when Emus that flocked to Campion during a hot summer scared the town’s inhabitants and an unsuccessful attempt to drive them off was mounted. In John Gould's Handbook to the Birds of Australia, first published in 1865, he laments the loss of the Emu from Tasmania, where it had become rare and has since become extinct; he notes that Emus were no longer common in the vicinity of Sydney and proposes that the species be given protected status.[4] Wild Emus are formally protected in Australia under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Although the population of Emus on mainland Australia is thought to be higher now than before European settlement,[5] some wild populations are at risk of local extinction due to small population size. Threats to small populations include the clearance and fragmentation of areas of habitat; deliberate slaughter; collisions with vehicles; and predation of the young and eggs by foxes, feral and domestic dogs, and feral pigs. The isolated Emu population of the New South Wales North Coast Bioregion and Port Stephens is listed as endangered by the New South Wales Government.[21]
The Emu subspecies that previously inhabited Tasmania became extinct following the European settlement of Australia in 1788; the distribution of the mainland subspecies has also been affected by human activities. Once common on the east coast, Emu are now uncommon; by contrast, the development of agriculture and the provision of water for stock in the interior of the continent have increased the range of the Emu in arid regions. Emus are farmed for their meat, oil and leather.
DODO (Raphus cucullatus)
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall (three feet), lived on fruit and nested on the ground.
The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. The adjective phrase "as dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead. The verb phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.
Biology
Systematics and evolution
The dodo is a close relative of modern pigeons and doves. mtDNA cytochrome b and 12S rRNA sequences[4] analysis suggests that the dodo's ancestors diverged from those of its closest known relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire (which is also extinct), around the Paleogene-Neogene boundary.[5] As the Mascarenes are of volcanic origin and less than 10 million years old, both birds' ancestors remained most likely capable of flight for considerable time after their lineages' separation. The same study has been interpreted[6] to show that the Southeast Asian Nicobar Pigeon is the closest living relative of the dodo and the Reunion Solitaire.
However, the proposed phylogeny is rather questionable as regards the relationships of other taxa[7] and must therefore be considered hypothetical pending further research; considering biogeographical data, it is very likely to be erroneous. All that can be presently said with any certainty is that the ancestors of the didine birds were pigeons from Southeast Asia or the Wallacea, which agrees with the origin of most of the Mascarenes' birds. Whether the dodo and Rodrigues Solitaire were actually closest to the Nicobar Pigeon among the living birds, or whether they are closer to other groups of the same radiation such as Ducula, Treron or Goura pigeons is not clear at the moment.
For a long time, the dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire (collectively termed "didines") were placed in a family of their own, the Raphidae. This was because their relationships to other groups of birds (such as rails) had yet to be resolved. As of recently, it appears more warranted to include the didines as a subfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae.
The supposed "White Dodo" is now thought to be based on misinterpreted reports of the Réunion Sacred Ibis and paintings of apparently albinistic dodos; a higher frequency of albinos is known to occur occasionally in island species (see also Lord Howe Swamphen).
Morphology and flightlessness
In October 2005, part of the Mare aux Songes, the most important site of dodo remains, was excavated by an international team of researchers. Many remains were found, including bones from birds of various stages of maturity,[8] and several bones obviously belonging to the skeleton of one individual bird and preserved in natural position.[2] These findings were made public in December 2005 in the Naturalis in Leiden. Before this, few associated dodo specimens were known, most of the material consisting of isolated and scattered bones. Dublin's Natural History Museum and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, among others, have a specimen assembled from these disassociated remains. A Dodo egg is on display at the East London museum in South Africa. Until recently, the most intact remains, currently on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, were one individual's partly skeletal foot and head which contain the only known soft tissue remains of the species.
This 1651 dodo image by Jan Savery is based on a 1626 painting by Roelant Savery, made from a stuffed specimen - note that it has two left feet and that the bird is obese from captivity.
This 1651 dodo image by Jan Savery is based on a 1626 painting by Roelant Savery, made from a stuffed specimen - note that it has two left feet and that the bird is obese from captivity.
The remains of the last known stuffed dodo had been kept in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, but in the mid-18th century, the specimen - save the pieces remaining now - had entirely decayed and was ordered to be discarded by the museum's curator or director in or around 1755. According to the current curator, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, the commonly-cited story that the remains were merely damaged - implying that more material could or should have been salvaged, and/or that the present remains were serendipitiously saved against the curator's orders - is an urban legend arising from a mistranslation of the Latin museum records.
In June 2007, adventurers exploring a cave in the Indian Ocean discovered the most complete and well-preserved dodo skeleton ever.[9]
From artists' renditions we know that the Dodo had greyish plumage, a 23-centimetre (9-inch) bill with a hooked point, very small wings, stout yellow legs, and a tuft of curly feathers high on its rear end. Dodos were very large birds, weighing about 23 kg (50 pounds). The sternum was insufficient to support flight; these ground-bound birds evolved to take advantage of an island ecosystem with no predators.
The traditional image of the dodo is of a fat, clumsy bird, but this view has been challenged in recent times. The general opinion of scientists today is that the old drawings showed overfed captive specimens.[10] As Mauritius has marked dry and wet seasons, the dodo probably fattened itself on ripe fruits at the end of the wet season to live through the dry season where food was scarce; contemporary reports speak of the birds' "greedy" appetite. Thus, in captivity, with food readily available, the birds would become overfed very easily.
Diet
The tambalacoque, also known as the "dodo tree", was hypothesized by Stanley Temple to have been eaten from by Dodos, and only by passing through the digestive tract of the dodo could the seeds germinate; he claimed that the tambalacocque was now nearly extinct due to the dodo's disappearance. He force-fed seventeen tambalacoque fruits to wild turkeys and three germinated. Temple did not try to germinate any seeds from control fruits not fed to turkeys so the effect of feeding fruits to turkeys was unclear. Temple also overlooked reports on tambalacoque seed germination by A. W. Hill in 1941 and H. C. King in 1946, who found the seeds germinated, albeit very rarely, without abrading.[11][12][13][14]
Extinction
Landscape with birds - dodo painted by Roelant Savery (1628).
Landscape with birds - dodo painted by Roelant Savery (1628).
Reunion or white dodo painted by Pieter Withoos (1654-1693).
Reunion or white dodo painted by Pieter Withoos (1654-1693).
As with many animals evolving in isolation from significant predators, the dodo was entirely fearless of people, and this, in combination with its flightlessness, made it easy prey.[15] But journals are full of reports regarding the bad taste and tough meat of the dodo, while other local species such as the Red Rail were praised for their taste. It is commonly believed that the Malay sailors held the bird in high regard and killed them only to make head dressings used in religious ceremonies.[16] However, when humans first arrived on Mauritius, they also brought with them other animals that had not existed on the island before, including dogs, pigs, cats, rats, and Crab-eating Macaques, which plundered the dodo nests, while humans destroyed the forests where the birds made their homes;[17] currently, the impact these animals — especially the pigs and macaques — had on the dodo population is considered to have been more severe than that of hunting. The 2005 expedition's finds are apparently of animals killed by a flash flood; such mass mortalities would have further jeopardized an already extinction-prone species.[18]
Although there are scattered reports of mass killings of dodos for provisioning of ships, archaeological investigations have hitherto found scant evidence of human predation on these birds. Some bones of at least two dodos were found in caves at Baie du Cap which were used as shelters by fugitive slaves and convicts in the 17th century, but due to their isolation in high, broken terrain were not easily accessible to dodos naturally.[19] By 1755, Cossigny reports that the number of refugees and settlers which cut down the inland forest was so high that the well-flighted Mauritius Blue Pigeon was rapidly declining all over the island.[citation needed]
There is some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the dodo. Roberts & Solow state that "the extinction of the Dodo is commonly dated to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by shipwrecked mariner Volkert Evertsz" (Evertszoon), but many other sources suggest the more conjectural date 1681. Roberts & Solow point out that because the sighting prior to 1662 was in 1638, the dodo was likely already very rare by the 1660s, and that thus a disputed report from 1674 cannot be dismissed off-hand.[20] Statistical analysis of the hunting records of Issac Johannes Lamotius, carried out by Julian Hume and coworkers,[citation needed] give a new estimated extinction date of 1693, with a 95% confidence interval of 1688 to 1715. Considering more circumstantial evidence such as travellers' reports and the lack of good reports after 1689,[19] it is likely that the dodo became extinct before 1700; thus, the last Dodo died barely more than a century after the species' discovery in 1581.[21]
Few took particular notice of the extinct bird. By the early 19th century it seemed altogether too strange a creature, and was believed by many to be a myth. With the discovery of the first batch of dodo bones in the Mare aux Songes and the reports written about them by George Clarke, government schoolmaster at Mahébourg, from 1865 on,[22] interest in the bird was rekindled. In the same year in which Clarke started to publish his reports, the newly-vindicated bird was featured as a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With the popularity of the book, the dodo became a well-known and easily recognizable icon of extinction.