Chair of Perth-based gamekeeping body for Scotland calls for predator controls to save endangered birds

The chairman of the Perth -based gamekeeping body for Scotland has hit out at environmental policies for pushing one of the country’s rarest birds to the brink of extinction for a second time.

A study by the NatureScot agency warned the capercaillie - the largest of the grouse species and known as the ‘cock-of-the-woods’ - will disappear from its last remaining pockets within two to three decades.

The Western capercaillie became extinct in the UK in the late 18th century but was reintroduced successfully to Scotland in the middle of the 19th century, with the population growing to around 20,000 by the 1970s.