Predator cull to save the curlew
PREDATORS face a cull in an attempt to save the curlew from extinction.
Scotland’s fastest declining bird was once a common sight in the country’s uplands and coastlines, and its ‘haunting’ song was used to introduce BBC Radio’s first natural history programme, The Naturalist, in 1946.
However, numbers have fallen by 61 per cent in the past 20 years, including 18 per cent in the latest survey from 2014-1 .
The decline of Europe’s largest wading bird has been attributed to changing land use and predation by foxes and crows.
The curlew was recently added to the UK’s red list of species of greatest conservation concern, with regional and national extinctions considered a real possibility in Britain and Ireland. But a five-year programme that could help reverse the bird’s fortunes, north and south of the Border, is under way.
Daniel Brown, RSPB Scotland’s senior conservation adviser, said specialists are focusing on six UK sites, including two farmland locations in Caithness and Ayrshire, where teams will combine habitat management with control of predators, such as foxes and crows.
He said: ‘If that combination of habitat management and predator control can increase breeding success and increase populations, then our knowledge level of what curlews need will be greatly increased and we can begin to try to roll that out into other important areas of the curlew’s range.’
Despite its level of urgency, the conservation project will be tested over several years before any expansion in order to more accurately gauge the birds’ response. The curlew does not breed until it is three years old.
During the nesting stage, the bird’s eggs are particularly vulnerable to foxes. As chicks start to hatch and move around, they are preyed upon by a wider variety of predators including crows and herons.
It is hoped a reduction in some of these predators will result in greater success for the failing curlew population.
Mr Brown added: ‘We don’t ever go into predator control lightly, but this is when the scientific basis shows it should have beneficial impact on a species of high conservation concern. The curlew is right at the top of that list.’