• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content

Revive

The coalition for grouse moor reform

  • Why REVIVE?
    • Scotland’s Grouse Moors
    • Snaring & Trapping
    • Mountain Hare Culling
    • Land Use
    • Mass outdoor medication
    • Public health
    • Environmental Damage
    • Killing protected birds of prey
    • Tracks, roads and fencing
  • The Coalition
  • News & Events
  • Get Involved
  • Videos & Media
  • Contact
  • Publications
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Scotland’s Grouse Moors: Background

October 12, 2018 by

For over 150 years, moorland in Scotland has been managed for red grouse-shooting. During this period, Scotland’s upland landscapes were transformed by the construction of access infrastructure, burning of heather moorland and the extermination of species such as white-tailed eagle, goshawk and red kitethrough poisoning, trapping and shooting.

The resultant heather moorlands that are sometimes regarded as an iconic part of the Scottish landscape are, in reality, highly modified habitats managed to encourage high populations of one species, red grouse, so they can be killed for fun in the course of recreational shooting.

The situation today

Overview - Grouse moor management

Driven grouse shooting, where wild red grouse are ‘driven’ (flushed) by beaters towards a static line of shooters, relies upon the availability of high numbers of grouse. To achieve this surplus, grouse moor managers incorporate three core elements of management:

  • Habitat manipulation (rotational burning of heather) to produce a mosaic of nutritious young heather for grouse to eat and older heather to provide nesting cover and protection from predators;
  • Parasite control, which includes medicating the grouse (a wild bird) with a veterinary drug dispensed via medicated grit and direct dosing, and also the mass culling of mountain hares that host some parasites;
  • Lethal predator control – typically of foxes, weasels, stoats, crows but some grouse moor managers are also involved in the illegal persecution of birds of prey.

The aim of Revive

Now that the debate has intensified in recent years, Revive will pursue a reform agenda that will use regulatory and economic levers to transition away from the blood sport of driven grouse shooting. A Revived Scotland would not compromise the welfare of upland animals but would instead result in diverse, regenerated landscapes that benefit local communities, biodiversity and the environment.

Related Content

Mass outdoor medication

To try to encourage a consistently high population density of grouse available to kill, one of the i …
Find out more

Tracks, roads and fencing

Monadhliaths Hill tracks

Off-road constructed vehicle tracks (often referred to as ‘hilltracks’) can ease access for land man …
Find out more

Land Use

Almost a fifth of Scotland has been made into a grouse moor. Estimates vary from 12% to over 18% but …
Find out more

Environmental Damage

Muir burn

Scotland’s vital peat reserves are under constant threat from the damage caused by increasingly inte …
Find out more

Videos & Media


Find out more

« Mass outdoor medication

Tagged With: Land use, medicated grit

© 2019. 

Revive

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. More info Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy