Officers continue to work to protect of capercaillie birds in the Cairngorms National Park

Wildlife Crime Officers are continuing to work with partners to detect and prevent the disturbing of capercaillie birds in the Cairngorms National Park.

Capercaillie are now in peak lekking season which means male birds perform competitive displays of courtship prior to breeding.

Land managers across the National Park work hard to help increase the population by managing the land appropriately and encouraging people to behave responsibly to prevent capercaillie from being disturbed.

Constable Daniel Sutherland, Wildlife Crime Officer for Highlands and Islands, said: “Capercaillie suffer when they are disturbed, and one thing we can do to help to prevent this is by not searching for them or allowing our dogs to run loose in areas where there are capercaillie and ground nesting birds.

“In recent years we continue to see wildlife photographers searching for capercaillie. Capercaillie are protected under Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

“Disturbing them whilst lekking is a criminal offence and myself and fellow Wildlife Crime Officers have started early morning patrols at key sites to prevent and detect disturbance.”

As part of the #LekItBe campaign led by the Cairngorms Capercaillie project, officers have teamed up with wildlife guides, rangers and land managers to carry out patrols on sensitive pathed areas where lekking takes place. The public have a role to help protect these rare and endangered birds by adhering to local signage and following the ‘caper friendly’ routes in place. CCTV is also in place to protect lekking sites and Police Scotland is committed to preventing wildlife crime.

If you see capercaillie being disturbed please report this to Police Scotland on 101.

For more information follow the campaign using #LekItBe.