OBJETO

The successful reintroduction of the capercaillie in Scotland during the 1800s is the only successful grouse reintroduction in a global context. This accomplishment is particularly difficult to explain for two reasons: first, because the species had become extinct in Scotland approximately fifty years earlier; second, because there have been recent failures in modern times at reintroduction despite scientists having greater knowledge about the species. The latter is particularly disappointing as environmental factors have not altered significantly since the nineteenth century and neither has the total quantity of suitable habitat for the bird.141

During the 1800s, the capercaillie was successfully reintroduced into a very similar environment in which it had become extinct fifty years or so earlier. It will be argued here that an examination of why this initial reintroduction of the species proved so successful will help to aid the assessment of the causes behind the observed decline of the species in Scotland during the 1600s and 1700s centuries. Accordingly, part of this chapter will give an account of the restoration of the capercaillie in Scotland between 1800 and 1900.

Modern accounts of the restoration of the species in Scotland are commonly presented by citing the descriptions of the reintroduction provided by both Harvie-Brown (1879) and Pennie (1950 & 1951). The first of these commentators, Harvie-Brown (1879), stated that following several failed attempts in the early 1800s the first successful reintroduction of the species in Scotland occurred following the release of birds reared on the Earl of Breadalbane’s estate at Kenmore in Perthshire in 1837 and 1838. Further information is provided by Pennie (1950) who stated that from this initial release of birds at Kenmore the capercaillie spread throughout ‘all areas of suitable

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The quantity of timber in Scotland had certainly increased during this period. However, it is proposed here that the quantity of habitat suitable for the capercaillie did not increase to the same extent between 1800 and 1900.

habitat in Scotland’ by 1900. This spread was aided both by subsequent introductions of birds and by the translocation of birds already settled in Scotland.

This chapter begins by examining the restoration of the species in Scotland starting in the early 1800s with the first attempted reintroductions and will continue until 1900, the date by which it has been proposed that the species had colonised ‘all areas of suitable habitat in Scotland’ (Harvie-Brown 1879). The chapter provides and comments on historical documentary information relating to the reintroduction of the species that has not previously been used for this purpose. This has been gathered from manuscript sources and provides detailed information on the movement of live animals between Scotland and continental Europe during the 1800s. An additional bonus is that this historical material supplies new information on earlier reintroductions of the species that have not previously been discussed. The chapter will conclude by providing a brief summary account of the history of the extant population of capercaillie in Scotland between 1900 and 2002. This latter date has been chosen because it was when the second extinction of the species in Scotland was first perceived as a possibility (Moss 2002).

The previous chapter of this thesis concluded by providing a summary of the proposed state and condition of the naturally occurring population of capercaillie in Scotland over time, from its arrival in Scotland after the Loch Lomond Stadial until its recorded absence from Scotland in the late-eighteenth century. Many commentators have stated that the ultimate cause of the perceived extinction of the naturally occurring population of capercaillie in eighteenth-century Scotland was brought about by the reduction and deterioration of the quantity of suitable habitat for the species (for example, Harvie-Brown 1879). This thesis concurs with this assertion at the national (Scotland) level as the total quantity of woodland cover in Scotland is known to have decreased rapidly between the Mesolithic and the Middle Ages. It would be incorrect, however, to state that the woodland continued to decrease at a similar rate from the Middle Ages up to the 1800s, as the woodland cover in Scotland had reached its lowest ebb by c.1600AD.

House and Dingwall (2003) have stated that since the Middle Ages, individuals in Scotland have had an active interest in the management and planting of trees. Indeed

they go on to argue that this interest grew in eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland into a ‘burgeoning interest in tree planting and forestry’. The first evidence for the relatively widespread planting of trees and areas of woodland in Scotland first comes in the second half of the seventeenth century with the passing of various acts by the Scottish and English parliaments. In Scotland, during the seventeenth century the planting of trees differed between localities and regions and was largely dependent on the motivations of the landowners of that time. This initial interest in the planting of trees and the establishment of new areas of woodland grew into a much larger movement during the eighteenth century and this has, to a certain extent, continued until the present day.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Scotland saw a dramatic change to the woodland component of the Scottish landscape. The 1700s saw the development of substantial planting regimes by various landowners. At this time large planting regimes were undertaken in the Highlands by the Duke of Atholl, the earls of Breadalbane and Argyll, the earls of Fife and Moray, Farquarson of Invercauld, and Archibald Grant of Monymusk. The majority of the species planted in these regimes was Scots pine and the Earl of Moray is reputed to have planted over 10,000,000 Scots pine trees that were all collected from seedlings on his estate. This interest in planting continued into the 1800s and, by 1812, it has been argued that there was around 914,000 acres of woodland in Scotland, 45% of which had been ‘planted’ (House & Dingwall 2003). By 1845 this percentage of planted woodland had increased to around 595,000 acres and included plantations of exotic tree species brought from overseas. The vast majority of these introduced tree species were conifers.

House and Dingwall (2003) have also stated that the rate of planting new areas of woodland in Scotland between 1750 and 1850 was approximately 4,000 to 6,000 acres each year. The majority of these new plantations were composed of coniferous tree species and were located in the counties of Inverness, Aberdeen and Perthshire. It has also recently been suggested that by 1812 the total estimated woodland cover in Scotland was around 9% of the total area of Scotland, only 7% of which was semi- natural in origin (Smout et al 2005).

Despite the increase in woodland cover during the latter part of the 1700s the capercaillie was still forced towards extinction. In the previous chapter it was suggested that sub-populations of capercaillie were lost between the 16th and 17th centuries, but that the overall national population was still able to persist. It was not until the 18th century, with the loss of some ‘core’ capercaillie populations that the persistence of the national population began its final demise. Evidently, given the success of the reintroduction, the impact of this critical factor had been mitigated during the 1800s by some change of conditions, natural or otherwise. The historical documentary evidence presented in the following sections of this chapter provides new information on the reintroduction. Similarly, this data provides a basis for the assessment of the impact of various driving factors of a population of capercaillie extant in Scotland at that time.