SSC Specialist Group Profile:The Grouse Specialist Group

List of all Specialist Group profiles

Securing viable populations of all species and subspecies of grouse in the wild, and thereby promoting the idea of biodiversity conservation, is the Grouse Specialist Group's major goal.

The Grouse Specialist Group (GSG) was formally founded in 1993 by the World Pheasant Association (WPA) and SSC, although grouse specialists had already maintained a close network within the WPA since the 1970s. Today, the GSG is chaired by Ilse Storch and has about 130 registered members throughout the grouse range, in 30 countries across Eurasia and North America. Its newsletter Grouse News is published twice a year. GSG members and other grouse experts gather every third year at the International Grouse Symposia (IGS). In 2000, the Group published Grouse: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan which serves as a guiding tool for the conservation of these intriguing birds.

Grouse - A fascinating group of birds

Grouse have long attracted and fascinated people. Their display behaviour, and particularly the communal mating grounds, or "leks", of the capercaillie, the black grouse, and the prairie grouse, have inspired poetry and folklore in Eurasia as well as North America. Perhaps even more importantly, grouse hunting has played a major role in the subsistence, economy, and culture of local communities. Grouse also show many features interesting to scientists. In fact, they are among the best-studied bird taxa in the world. Their mating systems have been studied to develop theories of sexual selection and evolution. Grouse population cycles remain a major puzzle for population ecologists. Grouse were part of the first studies on habitat fragmentation and landscape ecology. These studies have opened our eyes to the great influences the wider surroundings can have on the habitat and dynamics of grouse and other wildlife species.

Grouse conservation

Today, three of the 18 species of grouse are threatened with extinction (Gunnison sage grouse and the greater and lesser prairie chickens), three are considered Near-Threatened, and one is data deficient (2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species). Most species of grouse have lost parts of their ranges, show negative trends, and many local populations have become extinct. The major threat to grouse is human-induced habitat changes. Grouse play an important conservation role, because as typical representatives of a wide spectrum of natural habitats, they are indicators of ecosystem health. Their indicator function and their attractiveness to people make grouse excellent flagship species to promote conservation. In that sense, grouse conservation is conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity in general. The GSG is working along these lines. Securing viable populations of all species and subspecies of grouse in the wild, and thereby promoting the idea of biodiversity conservation, is the GSG's major goal.

Members profiled

Dr Siegfried Klaus
Dr Kathy Martin
Dr Emmanuel Ménoni
Dr Elchin Sultanov
Dr Sun Yue-Hua

Dr Siegfried Klaus

“I became interested in grouse and their conservation at the age of 17, when I found my first capercaillie lek, with six displaying cocks“ says Siegfried.

This area in so-called Saxonian Switzerland, in eastern Germany, is now a national park but sadly these magnificent birds are no longer found here. From this first encounter, Siegfried has always maintained a strong and continuous interest in grouse behaviour, ecology and conservation, although his professional research work is mainly concerned with microbial genetics.

Siegfried has completed many studies on grouse, and has published several monographs on pairs of palearctic grouse, in cooperation with eastern and western grouse specialists (the hazel grouses Bonasa bonasia, B. sewerzowi, the black grouses Tetrao tetrix, T. mlokosiewiczi and the capercaillies Tetrao urogallus, T. urogalloides). In order to collect the data for these books, particular attention was focused onto lesser known grouse species, like the Caucasian black grouse, the Siberian capercaillie, the sharp-winged grouse and – in the course of a Chinese-German project, the Chinese grouse. In addition, several field expeditions were carried out to study these birds which also provided a great opportunity to appreciate these wonderful birds in their wild and fascinating environment.

As well as undertaking a variety of research projects, Siegfried, together with Chinese GSG members Sun and Fang, was involved in the organization of the 9th International Grouse Symposium at Beijing in 2002. His most recent study, which started in spring last year, is a telemetry project, with GSG member Sasha Andreev, on Russian grouse species in the Kolyma uplands north of Magadan in the Russian Far East.

Dr Kathy Martin

“Studying grouse is a professional habit that has proven hard to stop!”

Kathy started studying grouse as a behavioural ecologist in 1980 and found them to be endlessly fascinating; such a wide array of ecologies, habitats occupied, mating systems, dispersal and social behaviours for a small bird subfamily. Sadly, the conservation problems faced by grouse are equally diverse and complicated.

A professor at the University of British Columbia and research scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, Kathy has traveled from the high arctic to the centre of North America and over 8,500km across Canada to study grouse ecology and conservation. She has a special affiliation for high elevation and high latitude species. She has spent much of her professional life working on two large problems in grouse conservation, connectivity and climate-induced changes to habitat and demography. Grouse must find year-round food and cover in a relatively small area (1 to <100km), and thus barriers to local connectivity can result in altered population dynamics or local extinctions. At larger scales, climate change poses increasing risk to grouse populations through increasingly extreme weather impacting breeding success, and on a longer time scale through changes in habitat.

The big question in much of Kathy’s grouse research program is how much change can northern and alpine grouse absorb and still persist. “It is shocking that the pristine northern site where I did my PhD research on willow ptarmigan only 20 years ago no longer supports a viable ptarmigan population due in part to a climate-induced collapse of breeding habitat,” she says. She feels that grouse are good model species to study ecological and conservation problems. There is much potential to solve critical conservation and management problems for grouse, given our reasonable understanding of the reference ecological condition for most species. Achieving grouse conservation and sustainable management is much more difficult, however, as this usually involves making tough decisions fraught with social and economic tradeoffs.

For Kathy, studying grouse is a professional habit that has proven hard to stop! “How many times have said I am “getting out of grouse”?“ she laughs. Today, with as much ongoing grouse research as ever, she may just have added other species to her avian research program.

Dr Emmanuel Ménoni

“Through my actions, I hope to conserve capercaillies so that many people in the future will be able to feel the great emotions that I have felt near these magnificent birds, in their wonderful habitats.”

Born in a small village in the French Alps, surrounded by forests and mountains rich in hazel grouse, black grouse, ptarmigan, and some rare capercaillies, Emmanuel was already fascinated by these birds by the time he was 10 years old. He’d climb thousands and thousands of metres to see them, but noticed at this time that there were many new developments in the Alps - each year new skiing facilities and roads were being built, and understood the danger for the birds. Already at 15 years old, he had decided to try to do something about it, contacting local foresters, gamekeepers and politicians.

After studying biology and ecology at Grenoble University, Emmanuel worked for the French National Office for Game and Wildlife, studying black grouse. “It was one of the great chances in my life,” he recalls, “I spent three years in a small cabin in the mountains, without any comfort, and it was wonderful”. He then began a similar study on capercaillies in the Pyrenees, huge and wild mountains where there are still intact populations. “As a result of this work,” says Emmanuel, “I have learnt a lot about the demography, ecology and habitat use of capercaillies, obtained my PhD and have very good mountain legs!”

Since 1990, he has spent more and more time working with hunters, foresters, farmers, tourist organizations and local administration services, to try to develop conservation actions, not only for these birds, but also for the whole mountain forest ecosystem. There have been some good results: hunting plans biologically adapted and closed hunting seasons when populations are low or reproduction is poor. However, habitat conservation is probably one of the most important results, and there has been a major change in attitudes in recent years. A lot of conservation and restoration projects have been undertaken and capercaillie conservation is now a major priority for the regional environment office and the National Forest Office. This change is most noticeable amongst foresters. 20 years ago, when Emmanuel suggested to a Forest manager that he should take into account capercaillie’s habitat requirements during his operations, he was told “it is question of economy, here, not of ecology.” Today, the same man explains to his foresters the importance of biodiversity conservation!

Dr Elchin Sultanov

“Conservation of the Caucasian black grouse, one of only three endemic birds in the Caucasus, is very challenging but rewarding work.”

Since his early childhood in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Elchin has always loved animals, especially birds. He was always bringing home different types of birds, both wild and domestic, but it was not until his studies at the Moscow State University that he started serious scientific research on birds, and now he is one of Azerbaijan’s leading ornithologists.

Elchin has always been interested in all game birds, but most especially in the enigmatic Caucasian black grouse, which has a fragmented distribution across the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountains. Little was known about this elusive species for a long time because it lives in the remote high mountains where access is very difficult, due to the lack of roads and villages. However, recently this has started to change, thanks to Elchin’s efforts and the work of his fellow Caucasian black grouse enthusiasts. In 2002, Azerbaijan, German and British researchers, supported by BirdLife International, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the German conservation organization NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland) visited sites in the high mountains of the Greater Caucasus and located 10 leks (display grounds where males compete to mate with the females).

It soon became clear why so little information had been gathered on this species up to now. Lekking time occurs in May-June, when the weather is often very bad and changeable. It rains a lot and even snows – not good working conditions for grouse field workers! But first results are very promising and in 2005, additional fieldwork is planned in the Lesser Caucasus.

Research in the Lesser Caucasus is more problematic, owing to the ongoing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, particularly in the Karabakh area where there is a high military presence. Any studies here are currently impossible, but Elchin and his team hope that with a few precautions, other places near the front line can be surveyed. He would also like to extend research to Nakhchivan, where suitable habitats occur but where to date no Caucasian black grouse have been recorded. Elchin hopes that this work will help to ensure a secure future the Caucasian black grouse, and the mountains where it lives, for future generations.

Dr Sun Yue-Hua

“There are eight species of grouse in China, and I am committed to the conservation efforts required to secure their future, especially for the endemic Chinese grouse, which is a key species in the high mountain forest along the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.”

Sun Yue-Hua is a professor at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the People’s Republic of China, and a Committee Member of the China Ornithological Society. His present research programme focuses on the Chinese grouse (Bonasa sewerzowi) and other endemic birds inhabiting the high mountain forest along the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This study includes research on its evolution, behaviour, ecology and conservation.

In 1991, Sun started his grouse work on the population ecology of the hazel grouse (Bonasa bonasia) on Changbai Mountain in north-east China. Cooperating with Dr. Jon E. Swenson in Norway, he produced Comparative studies on the population ecology of the hazel grouse between China and Scandinavia. Twenty-six hazel grouse were radio-tracked and he got good results on their home range, habitat selection, brood movement, chick dispersal and winter social behaviour.

Later, in 1995, Sun started to work on the endemic Chinese grouse in the Lianhuashan Natural Reserve in Gansu province. During 10 years’ research, more than 100 birds have been radio-tracked and his study covers almost all aspects of the species' biology, including distribution, habitat selection, reproductive biology, territorial and mating behaviour, landscape ecology and genetics. It is the largest wildlife radiotelemetry study in China. He and his team have also worked on the other birds inhabiting the same habitat, such as the blood pheasant (Ithaginis cruentus), the boreal owl (Aegolius funereus) and many passerine birds.

List of Specialist Group Profiles