‘A last resort’: is culling foxes the only way to save Britain’s vanishing curlews? | Birds

Should we organize mass screams of foxes and crows in the UK to save a falling number of Curlews? This is the argument put forward by some bird protection groups.

Curlew, one of the most charismatic birds in Britain with his curved beaks and distinctive calls, decreases 60% in 25 years and disappears from the countryside. A number of ground nest birds are only one of the nest birds-the reigns have found that there are 86% more likely to fall than birds with other nesting strategies.

The root of the problem is complex. Agricultural practices are accused of partially decreasing, such as running down the grass for silage. The machines chop the eggs and chicks hidden on the grass.

However, the additional issue is the way that people manage the rural rural Britain, the fact that in some regions of foxes, crows and other mesopredators to explode the population, which imposes the nest birds at risk.

For centuries, large predators such as eagles, lynx and wolves, which often keep the number of foxes and crows under control, were hunted close to extinction or extinction. Farming practices meant plenty of food for foxes and crows, from crops to animal carcasses, each year, tens of millions of fats published for shooting, domesticated, remained in the fields, including easy -to -catch pheasants.

These Mesopredator animals like to feed the eggs and young people of floor nest birds. Is it time to talk about a fox partner, the protection expert and writer asks Mary Colwell, who manages the charity institution Curlew action? He campaigns to save Curlew for years, and proposes that there should be a “serious speech de, although he hates the idea of ​​hitting a fox and never doing it on his own.

“Curlew chicks and eggs are incredibly vulnerable to the activities we have done on the ground,” Groundswell said to the Farm Conference at the beginning of this summer. “When I say that Curlews decreased by 60% in 25 years, it is not the death of adults. Adults really survive well, they cannot get enough eggs and chicks to replace the population.”

He says an increasing number of protectionists think that the only way to correct the situation. “There are many called Mesopredators in the United Kingdom. Each of these creatures is absolutely a great part of the natural history of England on its own. But now there is too much, and the fall of floor nesting birds is so violent that there is a great agreement to make a great deal, both of which are curable birds.

“I couldn’t. I can’t lift a gun and hit a fox.

However, some do not accept that predators are the answer. Dr Ruth Tingay, the co -director of the campaign group Wild Justice, said: “The deadly control of some generalist species will not solve the long -term issue of excessive abundance, which is a direct result of the wrong management of our rural areas.

“The three main long -term problems to be discussed, silage construction increases nutritional opportunities for caravan crows and reduces the reproductive success of Curlews, the annual evacuation of up to 60 million pheasant and red -legged fingers, including predators and scavengers, otherwise, otherwise, including the accredious, including the accredious, otherwise, including the accredious Mesopredators and scavengers populations ”.

In the short term, Dr Tingay may be a justified for the aim of protection purposes of certain nature for protection purposes ”, but this should be done only as a last resort and where only solid scientific evidence shows a need”.

The Association for the Protection of Royal Birds acknowledges that it should only be done as a last resort. A spokesman said: “Legal predatory control should always be used as a last resort when other methods fail. However, non -fatal methods are not always practical or effective, and sometimes the main causes of habitat loss to provide a life line to nesting birds populations can be discussed.”

Colwell says that we need to ask ourselves whether we can withstand these animals to save the nest birds: “This is not a nature decision, because there is nothing natural about this country. So yes, if we want these floor nesting birds, we need more predators control.