Book Review: Grouse
Ilse Storch
By: Adam Watson & Robert Moss
Publisher: The New Naturalist Library, Harper Collins Publishers, London, UK, 2008, 529 pp.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-00-715097-7; Paperback ISBN: 978-0-00-715098-4
This is the best, popular science book on grouse that I have seen, because it excellently combines naturalistic experience with scientific depth. It is up to date, excellently written, nicely illustrated and reader-friendly edited, but I cannot recommend carrying this heavyweight in one’s rucksack on international travels.
The authors Adam Watson and Robert Moss are two of the most prominent British grouse ecologists. Combined, they have spent more than a century collecting anecdotes, experience, and knowledge on grouse. They have published numerous research articles and participated in scientific debates that reached far beyond grouse ecology. Their extensive expertise in the field and in the laboratory forms the basis for this summary of two scientific lifetimes focused on grouse.
The book begins with a short overview of grouse worldwide, their evolution, distribution, habitat and conservation status (Chapter 1).
Chapter 2 explains the etymology of grouse names. We learn that a grouse is a (red) grouse, which means a grumbler, and a black grouse is the same in black, whereas ptarmigan and capercaillie are something else, and certainly not grouse. Got it? No? Read yourself.
Chapters3-6 introduce the four grouse species that occur in Britain: the red grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica and willow ptarmigan L. lagopus, the rock ptarmigan L. muta, the black grouse Tetrao tetrix and the capercaillie T. urogallus. These accounts provide solid summaries of the species’ natural history and ecology, but also point out conservation concerns. The focus clearly is on Britain, but the authors always look also beyond the United Kingdom and refer to work in other parts of the grouse range such as Scandinavia, Siberia and North America.
Together, chapters 1-6 take up about one third of the pages in the book. The other two thirds, Chapters 7-15, have a thematic approach and discuss behaviour (7), snow roosts (8), territoriality (9), plumage (10), habitat (11), nutrition (12), enemies (13), population fluctuations (14) and management and conservation (15) for all or several of the four British grouse species.
Even though the authors focus on Britain, they make an effort to provide readers with a wider geographic and ecological perspective. This is important, because in many ways, the British grouse situation is unique. With the long traditions of large-scale heather moorland management and predator control, the relative weights of factors that drive grouse populations are likely ranking differently than elsewhere.
Readers will appreciate the chapter summaries, endnotes, bibliography and index. The chapter summaries allow a quick review of essential contents. References are indexed in the text and do not hinder the flow of reading, yet spare the specialist reader the frustration of many other popular science books, namely that they are not able to review the author’s sources. All citations and often additional background are provided in the endnotes. The text is illustrated with numerous well-selected photographs and informative graphics. The authors avoid scientific jargon as far as possible, and never use technical terms without explanation. I was impressed with the ease at which they made abstract ecological concepts understandable in simple yet to the point words.
The book is highly recommendable for naturalists, conservationists and grouse scientists alike. Enjoying the book does not require a natural sciences degree. Yet, for ecologists and students working on grouse, the book is a must, because it is drawing a larger picture that is hard to capture from reading scientific papers.
Ilse Storch
9 April 2009
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany