Colin McClean, Wildlife Manager
Winter is wearing on now and on the east side of Scotland even the weather complied with Dry January. Along with all GT staff of course. This winter has been very easy on Glen Tanar wildlife so far. This is most apparent in our red deer herd. Scotland’s wild deer species are remarkably free of lethal parasites and diseases so their two main annual survival challenges are getting through the winter and avoiding the necessary cull. However food is still scarce in any winter so some deer are beginning to look a bit thin even in the forest where the environment is more sheltered and food rich.
The big flocks of winter thrushes which are such a feature of Glen Tanar Novembers and Decembers have long moved on, but this year we enjoyed a short lived influx of super cool, always busy waxwings, which frantically stripped berry bushes and then rushed away to locate the next food stop. These birds are occasional winter visitors from Scandinavia and are rarely seen up the glen. Some of the days in January were really quite balmy and many species began to prematurely think of spring. Red grouse began to get feisty and for a while the hill was alive with territorial disputes. A brief fall of snow soon put a stop to that.
Our black grouse males are already mooching about the lek where they display in spring. The ladies aren’t remotely interested in their antics until April, but the males still find it worth the effort to stand around the lek several months in advance. Probably they are sorting out some sort of dominance hierarchy but its not at all obvious how it works to human eyes.
While the black grouse think about breeding, February is the month for our badgers to give birth with litters being born underground. Badger breeding biology is bizarre. Two months after birth mating starts again, with the female storing undeveloped embryos in her body for some time. She can mate several times through spring and summer with several different males. When she comes to give birth in February, typically to a litter of two cubs on Glen Tanar, its possible that the two cubs born at the same time have totally different fathers. Now that’s impressive. But possibly less so if you are a confused Father Badger.
