King of the moor

The red grouse is a resilient little bird. Prone to an unpleasant disease called louping ill which is transmitted by sheep ticks, and vulnerable to attack by nasty, invasive little worms, its population may crash in some moorland areas for several years; and then it will reappear in healthy numbers as if nothing had happened. Grouse-shooting in Scotland has suffered a serious decline recently, due in part to the increased population of red deer, which may also be infested with ticks, and to cold, wet weather during the hatching season. (I have only just learnt that the Dr Edward Wilson who did so much valuable work in the early 20th century on the causes of grouse disease is the same Wilson who perished with Scott in the Antarctic.)

In these days when field sports seem to be constantly under threat from interfering ignoramuses, it is heartening to know, from a report by the Game Conservancy Trust, that the management of grouse moors benefits birds such as the curlew, dunlin and golden plover, whereas in upland areas where there is no grouse-shooting, the numbers of those birds are in decline.