The capercaillie is Britain's most imperilled bird species, facing extinction in Scotland without urgent habitat management and disturbance reduction.
Capercaillie welfare at the individual level is threatened by predation, collision with deer fences, and human disturbance. Lekking males disturbed repeatedly during the April-May display season fail to breed. Females with chicks disturbed in the first weeks after hatching suffer chick mortality from cold and separation. Deer fence marking and removal in capercaillie territories reduces collision mortality. Predator management, while ethically complex, is considered necessary to maintain viable breeding populations at current density. The welfare of individual birds and the viability of the population are tightly intertwined at such low numbers.