Outdoor winter recreation is exerting an increasing pressure upon alpine
biodiversity. There is an urgent need to better understand the detrimental effects on
wildlife in order to propose targeted mitigation measures. This chapter summarizes the
main results of a still ongoing research about the impacts of outdoor snowsports on
black grouse, a regionally declining bird species. Black grouse was chosen as a model
species because, in the European Alps, it inhabits exclusively treeline ecosystems,
where most outdoor winter activities take place. We investigated the physiological
(stress and energetics) and behavioural (activity budget) responses of free-ranging
radio-tracked black grouse to human disturbance in winter, while assessing
demographic effects. We then modelled areas of conflict between black grouse and
winter outdoor recreation, which resulted in spatially-explicit prescriptions for
mitigating its impacts. We finally discuss various issues around practical
implementation of winter refuges for Alpine black grouse conservation.
Keywords: Black grouse, conflict zones, demography and distribution, mitigation
measures, modelling, physiological and behavioural responses, treeline
ecosystems, winter refuges.
