The first and so far the only nursery for growing wood grouse was created in the Naliboksky reserve in 2016
Capercaillie is a large bird from the pheasant family, the order of chickens. The name owes to the well-known peculiarity of the male during the mating season to lose sensitivity and vigilance, which hunters often use.
Grouses love old, hard-to-reach thickets with their measured calmness, remoteness from roads and paths. There are practically no similar ones left in Europe. And our anthropogenic load on forests has increased many times over. But still, this is the only place on the continent where the Western European capercaillie enjoys freedom. She was chosen by him in the forest lands from Volozhin region to Slonim and Luninets.
The first and so far the only nursery for growing wood grouse was created in the Naliboksky reserve in 2016. The project was implemented thanks to the financial support of the European Union. The main task of the nursery is to preserve the West European subspecies of the so-called wood grouse Mayer, which is on the verge of extinction. In total, there are about 400 individuals in Belarus, most of them live in the Nalibokskaya Pushcha. And in neighboring countries - Poland, Germany, Lithuania - Mayer's capercaillie practically disappeared into the wild.
The wood grouse nursery is a pilot project, it can be considered the beginning of an interesting experiment. It will help preserve the biodiversity of our nature, prevent the disappearance of one of its beautiful creations. To guarantee this, according to biologists, it is necessary to replenish the population with at least 100 chicks annually. This means that it is necessary to at least double the breeding stock.