Black Grouse

Question

Wonder how accurate article in todays Telegraph is where it states Black Grouse is a red listed bird as a result of habitat loss and increasingly intensive agriculture.Bird books I have all state that this bird is a moorland bird and there are many thousands of acres of moorland that surely are good for Black Grouse with none there,for instance doubt if any are any on Derbyshire Peak District moors.Wonder if this old habit of blaming increasingly intensive agriculture is stopping us getting the answer to the real problem.All the moors that I have seen from Dartmoor to Scotland could not be labelled intensive agriculture even by someone with massive imagination.

KatTai · Accepted Answer

The RSPB information lists several problems for the Black Grouse, including overgrazing (livestock, deer and rabbit) - which causes habitat loss, expansion of forestry - obviously causing habitat loss and there does seem to be lots of young plantations popping up, drainage - causing habitat loss, and deer fences - apparently a major cause of adult mortality. And there are a lot of deer fences around! So looks like the Telegraph is only picking up a corner of the jigsaw puzzle. But then, most conservation issues are a usually a much bigger picture than what the press report, it's as if they think if it gets too complicated their readers heads may explode due to the complexity of the situation. Or blaming a fence is just too boring. "Habitat loss" in itself is often very complicated and can be caused due to many factors so it doesn't really explain anything as it covers so many things - could even be aliens coming down and taking the heather because they like to wear it as a wig for all "Habitat loss" could cover. 
 The Black grouse would also be red listed regardless of how well it was doing in the UK - they have declined massively across Europe (where agriculture could be a major problem, who knows?) 
 All that for a tabloid? Geez I must be bored today lol