Qualities of individuals in a replacement stock of blue grouse

• Main Author: Low, David J.
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19292

An entire breeding population of blue grouse (Dendraqapus obscurus) was removed in 1970 from an area of 900 acres of second-growth forest land on central Vancouver Island. The population had been declining since 1954. A nearby area with its grouse population intact was retained as a control. The artificially removed population was completely replaced at the first breeding season, - almost completely by yearling birds, which is evidence for there being a surplus of individuals in the spring. This new population resembled the original residents and other grouse in surrounding areas. The use of behaviour evaluation techniques revealed that the recolonizing population was as aggressive as the original residents had been. The removal experiment gave strong evidence that blue grouse space themselves out through territorial behaviour. === Science, Faculty of === Zoology, Department of === Graduate