Should we be organising mass culls of foxes and crows in the UK in order to save the plummeting numbers of curlews? That is the argument put forward by certain bird conservation groups.<\/p>\n
The curlew, one of Britain\u2019s most charismatic birds, with its curved beaks and distinctive call, has been disappearing from the countryside, declining by 60% in 25 years. It is just one of a number of ground-nesting birds that is vanishing \u2013 research has found that ground nesters are 86% more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies.<\/p>\n
The root of the problem is complex. Farming<\/a> practices such as running heavy machinery down fields to cut grass for silage are partly to blame for the decline. The machines chop up the eggs and chicks hidden in the grass.<\/p>\n But the additional issue is that the way humans manage the UK countryside has caused a population boom of foxes, crows and other mesopredators in some areas, which is putting ground-nesting birds at risk.<\/p>\n Over centuries, most large predators such as eagles, lynx and wolves, which would usually keep the numbers of foxes and crows under control, have been hunted in the UK to extinction or near extinction. Farming practices have meant plentiful food for foxes and crows is left in fields, from crops to animal carcasses, including the tens of millions of fat, domesticated, easy-to-catch pheasants released every year for shooting.<\/p>\n These mesopredators like to feed on the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. So is it time to talk about a fox cull, asks the conservationist and writer Mary Colwell, who runs the charity Curlew Action<\/a>? She has been campaigning to save the curlew for years, and although she hates the idea of shooting a fox and would never do it herself, she suggests a \u201cserious conversation\u201d needs to be had.<\/p>\n \u201cCurlew chicks and eggs are incredibly vulnerable to the activities that we do on the ground,\u201d she told the Groundswell farming conference earlier this summer. \u201cSo when I say curlews have declined by 60% in 25 years, it\u2019s not that the adults are dying. Adults survive really, really well; it\u2019s that they cannot get enough eggs and chicks away to replace the population.\u201d<\/p>\n She says an increasing number of conservationists feel culls may be the only solution. \u201cIn the UK we have huge numbers of what\u2019s called mesopredators. Every single one of those creatures is an absolutely wonderful bit of Britain\u2019s natural history in its own right. But there are so many now, and the decline of ground-nesting birds is so severe, that the two are coming together to create a catastrophe for ground-nesting creatures. There is a huge agreement on how to protect red-listed birds like curlews, and predator control is absolutely central to that.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it. I can\u2019t lift a gun and shoot a fox. But I know it needs to be done if we want curlews, and that\u2019s the societal question.\u201d<\/p>\n But some disagree that predator control is the answer. Dr Ruth Tingay, co-director of the campaign group Wild Justice, said: \u201cLethal control of some generalist predatory species will not solve the long-term issue of their over-abundance, which is a direct result of the mismanagement of our countryside.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The way humans currently manage the UK countryside has caused a population boom of foxes. Photograph: Stephan Morris Photography\/Alamy<\/p>\n \u201cThe three main long-term issues that need to be addressed include intensive agriculture, where silage-making increases feeding opportunities for carrion crows and reduces the breeding success of curlews; the annual release of up to 60 million non-native pheasants and red-legged partridges, which sustain artificially-high numbers of predators and scavengers; and the illegal killing of birds of prey, including species such as goshawks, which would otherwise limit the populations of mesopredators and scavengers\u201d.<\/p>\n Tingay accepted that in the short-term \u201cthere may be justification for targeted and limited predator control for specific nature conservation purposes\u201d, but this should be done \u201conly as a last resort and only where robust scientific evidence shows there to be a need\u201d.<\/p>\n