Capercaillie Emergency Plan related documents

This document contains the Capercaillie Emergency Plan 2025 – 2030, launched by the Cairngorms National Park Authority and NatureScot on behalf of the Scottish Government, to urgently address the rapidly declining capercaillie population in Scotland, which has fallen by 52% in the last five years. The plan focuses on immediate and targeted actions within the Cairngorms National Park, home to most of the UK’s capercaillie, to improve breeding success and survival. Key initiatives include expanding and enhancing forest habitats through woodland expansion, restructuring, grazing with cattle, and restoring bog areas, as well as using a technique called robocutting to manage heather. The plan also tackles threats from predators by implementing diversionary feeding, monitoring populations of voles and pine martens, and removing or marking fences that can cause collisions. Additionally, it seeks to reduce human disturbance from activities like mountain biking and dog walking. To better understand the population, new monitoring methods, such as trail cameras and genetic surveys from droppings, will be used to track capercaillie health and numbers without causing disturbance. The plan also explores the feasibility of bringing in capercaillie from Europe to increase genetic diversity if necessary, aiming to secure the species' long-term future.