A courtship can be a stressful thing, both humans and animals know that. The last time a wood grouse had to experience that, who has become half mad in the maddening of love. But now he finally has peace
Territorial behavior can be a stressful thing, as many people know that too. Judges, for example, who often struggle with neighborhood lawsuits. Compared to humans, the anyway very rare and shy capercaillie hardly play a role in court – except perhaps that stuffed copy that was a model for a district judge in the Black Forest last year as a victim of a crime. In the end, a young man was sentenced to one week’s youth arrest for killing a wood grouse while drunk and armed with a bottle. The judge did not relieve him of the self-defense at that time, and indeed: There is another way, the district offices in Bad Tölz and Miesbach have just proven it. And the wood grouse from the Lenggrieser hut has finally calmed down.
Whether he will relapse again remains to be seen, says the area manager for the Mangfall Mountains in the Miesbach district, the rooster’s new home. He first spent an hour there eating, then cared for his plumage and finally went to sleep – all things that he had barely gotten to at the Lenggrieser Hütte in the Tölzer area. Because sometime in May the rooster discovered the terrace of the hut as a courtship area for himself, and he then defended it around the clock and until he was exhausted – especially up to his own, because the constant threat, spreading and pecking takes strength. His supposed rivals were, in turn, people who used the word “courtship” for such behavior on the animal side. At some point the whole gocking didn’t go down well at the hut, and anyway not with the capercaillie. In all this, the rooster has neglected himself very much and in the end really no longer made a good figure. In addition, the hens ignore mating cocks as a matter of principle.
That doesn’t sound like a recipe for success in evolution. Even the Tölz district administration does not know why some capercaillie keep freaking out. It is noticeable, however, that they prefer to go crazy where there are many people. If, on the other hand, people were courting too many grouse, that would probably be less of a problem. There aren’t many grouse left.