Decline and range contraction of black-billed capercaillie (Tetrao urogalloides) in Northeast China from 1950 to 2010 based on local historical documents

The black-billed capercaillie (tetrao urogalloides) is a large capercaillie which is considered an endangered species that has undergone a dramatic decline throughout the late 20th century. this species is now rare or absent in northeast china and needs immediate protection. effective conservation and management could be hampered by insufficient understanding of the population decline and range contraction; however,any historical information,whilst being crucial,is rare. in this paper,we present local historical documents as one problem-solving resource for large-scale analysis of this endangered species in order to reveal the historical population trend in northeast china from 1950 to 2010. our results show that the population was widely distributed with a large population in northeast china before the 1980s. because of increasing habitat destruction in northeast china since the 1970s,population numbers appeared to have significantly declined in eastern and southern northeast china. southeastern populations in the changbai mountains may have disappeared locally in the late 1990s. the population of the black-billed capercaillie appears to have suffered a decline of more than 50% (based on occurrence points) in the decade from 2000 in northeast china compared to their distribution figures in the 1950s. the remaining population has become concentrated in the greater khingan mountains and several nature reserves in the lesser khingan mountains. we suggest that reforestation and national nature reserve management should be strengthened,and maybe a systematic conservation plan launched for the greater khingan mountains population. more generally,our research demonstrates that recovering information from local historical documents can be a useful and reliable way to surpass the limits caused by lack of data. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.