The method of trophy assessment of capercaillies

Abstract

The capercaillie as one of the most important hunting objects in Russia has not yet been included in the list of esti-mated hunting trophies due to the lack of an acceptable assessment methodology. The aim of the work is to develop a method for assessing the trophy advantages of a capercaillie. The objects of the study were morphological indicators which expressed the size and the age of the birds caught. The study involved 39 stuffed animals of capercaillie, 47 carcasses of freshly caught birds and 105 skulls from research collections. Measurement of taxidermy products (stuffed animals and museum carcasses) gives inaccurate information about the fowl caught. It is preferable to use the skull of a male capercaillie as a trophy. In the system of the International Council for the Hunting and Preservation of the Wildlife (CIC) the traditional measurements of the skull are the maximum length and width. In trophy animals, the scull size sufficiently reflects the sum of these indicators, therefore they are chosen for trophy assessment. For capercaillie, the correlation of similar pro-meters with body weight was not so close r = 0.489. In authors’ opinion, the assessment method should include the size of the interorbital space as an addi-tional parameter. This measurement is used in methods for determining the age of capercaillies caught. The formula for scoring is the product of the interorbital space by the sum of the maximum length and width of the skull. The correlation coeffi-cient between the trophy rating by this formula and the bird weight in this study is rm = 0.931, and the trophy rating and age rv = 0.920. The intervals of the final points for awarding the medals are: bronze  55-59.99 points, silver  60-64.99, gold  more than 65 points. This assessment system was successfully tested at two exhibitions of hunting trophies held in the Kirov region in 2017, and was approved by expert commissions.