Statskog’s counts show positive signs in the north, but from Trøndelag and south the development in the population is so weak that the state agency closes its areas to grouse hunting. The figures from the areas in Trøndelag and further south are bad news for tens of thousands of Norwegian grouse hunters. – With a couple of small exceptions, this year it is only from Nordland and further north that, according to our analyses, there is a harvestable grouse surplus, says Jo Inge Breisjøberget, Head of Department at Statskog. But in the far north it is quite the opposite. After many lean years for the grouse population in Finnmark, things are now much better. Right now there are perhaps more grouse in Finnmark than there have been at any time in this millennium. The official counts have not been completed, but the researchers are nevertheless fairly certain that it will be a good harvest for the hunters. Doubled stock – This autumn it looks very good. The statistical model we use shows that this autumn there will be twice as many grouse this year as there were last year, says Eivind Flittie Kleiven. He is a researcher at the University of Tromsø and leads grouse research in the Coat project, which looks at ecology and climate on the Varanger Peninsula in the far east of Finnmark. Grouse researchers Eivind Flittie Kleiven and Marita Anti Strømeng have good news from the mountains. Here with his assistants – kleiner münsterländer Giron and pointer Áššu. Photo: Knut-Sverre Horn / news Together with researcher Marita Anti Strømeng and two bird dogs, he has been on the mountain in recent days and watched the grouse. He confirms the impression that many mountain hikers have had in recent weeks: There are many large grouse broods to be seen. Grouse warning But the researchers could foresee this as early as July. They have created a model to calculate the grouse population. They start with figures from grouse counts and hunting yields the previous year. Then they put in weather data and systematic counts of animal life in the mountains. Some of the factors are already well known. But researchers have come a long way in finding exactly how much they mean. – Small rodents are important for grouse. A lot of small rodents means that the predators eat other things than grouse, and most of the grouse chicks can grow up. The Smånagertoppen this summer has also produced many young of the endangered mountain fox in Varanger. Lots of reindeer carcasses in the mountains also seem to produce more grouse. The effect is currently somewhat uncertain, but the explanation is the same as for the rodents: carcasses in winter mean that the predators have an alternative food source and can leave the grouse alone. Part of the model is also the occurrence of birch meters. This butterfly has larvae that can scavenge the forest and thus destroy the food supply for the grouse. The larvae of the birch borer can destroy birch forests, where the grouse finds a lot of food. Photo: Moritz Klinghardt The weather determines Weather data is important in the calculations. – It is important that the snow settles early in the autumn, so that the grouse are well camouflaged when they turn white, and the predators find it difficult to hunt them, says Flittie Kleiven. The weather during a period in the summer is particularly critical. – The chickens are vulnerable to heavy rainfall and low temperatures. Therefore, it is important to have dry and warm weather just at the time of hatching. With these factors, the researchers have predicted the grouse population quite precisely in the last two years. But Eivind Flittie Kleiven has reservations that the grouse warning is, after all, in its infancy. The goal is to make the model more precise year by year, as they get more data to feed into it. Vulnerable grouse chicks survive to a much greater extent if they get good weather. Photo: Jan-Helge Andersen Benefit for management It is common to count grouse by walking with bird dogs along fixed routes. It is done in August, just before the hunt. – The advantage of the forecast model is that you can already find out at the beginning of July what the autumn grouse population will be like, compared to finding out when the assessment comes in about a week before the start of hunting, says Kleiven. He believes that management can improve when both landowners and hunters are given more time to prepare. But the model is not just a practical tool. When it hits well, it is also confirmation that the researchers have understood the deeper connections in nature. – In research, being able to predict what will happen is really the definition of having understood something. In any case, this year’s grouse harvest will not be able to compare with the peak years in the good old days. Photo: Kjartan Trana / news Small grouse on a historical scale Both the gray grouse and the mountain grouse have become far less numerous. In 2015, they even ended up on the red list of vulnerable and threatened species. After the stocks seemed to stabilise, they were removed from the red list again in 2021. When Kleiven says that this will be a good grouse year, it applies in a rather short time perspective. Because we are not back to the good grouse years that mature hunters can reminisce about. – It is not a peak year compared to the peaks you have had in the last 50-60 years. But within a 15-20 year period it will be one of the better years, says Kleiven.
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Twice as many grouse in Finnmark as last year – news Troms and Finnmark
