Capercaillie

Elusiveness: 100 (out of 100)

Speed: 40mph

Deliciousness: 70 (out of 100)

Population: 523 and declining

(Image credit: Alamy)

Location: Capercailllie live in Scottish pine forests, in places such as Strathspey, Easter Ross, and the Cairngorms — their pine forest habitat is now much depleted at some 180’000km².

Need to know: The capercaillie we have in Scotland today are descended from reintroduced birds brought to the UK from Sweden by Llewelyn Lloyd and Thomas Fowell Buxton in 1837. Fowell Buxton was a politically radical brewing magnate and anti-slavery campaigner. He asked his distant cousin, Lloyd (who was fishing in Sweden) to bring some capercaillie back with him to replace the original Scottish population, which had become extinct in around 1785.

The reint

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