In a recent note published in this journal (Rubiales et al. 2009) we discuss the role the long-term environmental history of the Cantabrian Mountains may have played in the dynamics of the Cantabrian capercaillie Tetrao urogallus cantabricus, the only subspecies of capercaillie at risk of extinction worldwide. Three key conclusions, in the light of the available palaeoecological data were that: 1) the vegetation occurring within the range of the Cantabrian capercaillie has heavily changed during the last three millennia, due primarily to anthropogenic activity; 2) the extensive distribution of pinewoods until the historical period is coherent with the pattern of association of capercaillie and conifers occurring in the rest of its range; and 3) in the light of the distinct current patterns of decline and persistence of the capercaillie, it could be expected that the demise of pinewoods (becoming locally extinct at the western part of the Cantabrian mountains) would have had implications in the capercaillie persistence in the long ter
