Proceedings

Monitoring of the Great Snipe and the Black Grouse in Specially
Protected Nature Territories
EDWARD MONGIN 1 , YURI BOGUTSKI 2 , NICHOLAS CHERKAS 3
Abstract
The Great Snipe Gallinago media and the Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix are species the numbers of which has
considerably decreased on the territory of Belarus as a result of transformation and destruction of their habitats.
Long-term censuses of these species were conducted on the territory of the National Park “Belovezhskaya Puscha”
and the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The Great Snipe censuses have been conducted on three permanent leks
annually since 2001. For the Black Grouse, we analyzed archive and own data of the censuses performed on the
territory of Belovezhskaya Puscha since 1952, as well as own census data obtained on the territory of the Berezinsky
Reserve since 1999.
It was ascertained that within an extremely short period of time, many native habitats of the Great Snipe can
become unsuitable because of flood-plain meadows overgrowth in the absence of cattle pasture. On the territory
of Belovezhskaya Puscha, a decrease in the Black Grouse population by six-times from the beginning of 1960
was observed. In the Berezinsky Reserve, the short period of observation did not allow to determine the longterm
tendencies of the change in the Black Grouse numbers. The main reasons for a decrease in the Black Grouse
numbers are anthropogenic factors, such as melioration and use of lands for agricultural purposes, which caused
transformation of the natural habitats. On the transformed territories, displaying grounds for this species are typically
overgrown with bushes and trees. Further negative impact on the Black Grouse population is also caused by hunting
and poaching activities.
Introduction
The Great Snipe Gallinago media and the Black Grouse
Tetrao tetrix are bird species with a lek-based mating
system. Both species use successional habitats exposed to
heavy human activity. Distribution of the Great Snipe in
Belarus is associated with floodplain meadows and reach
fens (Mongin, 2008). The Black Grouse’s areal mainly
coincides with the distribution of birch. Its typical native
habitats are marshy birch forests on the south of the forest
zone. Such habitats are bordered by birch-aspen copses
and meadows that provide year-round living conditions
due to the abundance of birch catkins (Gavrin, 1969).
In spite of the differences in the protection status of
the Great Snipe and the Black Grouse, populations of
both species have strongly declined on the territory of
Europe before 1990. At present, further reductions in the
numbers of these species are registered in many countries.
The Great Snipe is one of the bird species currently
classified as globally near-threatened (IUCN, 2004).
At the European level, the Great Snipe is considered
as severely declining and classified as SPEC1 (Birdlife
International, 2004). The Black Grouse is a widespread
resident and its European breeding population is very
large. Nevertheless, its numbers have become smaller
and its habitats more fragmented during the last 50
years. The species has SPEC3 category and is evaluated
as Depleted (Birdlife International, 2004).
In Belarus, the Great Snipe was historically considered
as widespread and a common breeding species in all
regions where suitable habitats existed (Fedyushin &
Dolbik, 1967). According to the new data gathered
during 2000-2001 (Mongin, 2002), it was estimated that
Great Snipe habitats have been reduced by at least 50%
over the past 40 years. The decline of the breeding Great
Snipe population in Belarus was caused predominantly
by habitat loss.
Small decrease of the Black Grouse population was
noted in the Eastern regions of Belarus as early as in
the beginning of the 20 th century (Fedyushin & Dolbik,
1967). Afterwards, censuses conducted by Dolbik
have shown that by the end of the 1970s Black Grouse
population in many places decreased almost two-fold
1
Institute of Zoology NAS, Academicheskaya Str. 27, 220072 Minsk, Belarus, e-mail: edward.m@list.ru
2
Berezinski Biosphere Reserve, Domzeritsy, Vitebsk Region, Belarus
3
Belovezhskaya Puscha National Park, Kamenyuki, Brest Region, Belarus
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