I write in response to your report, in which I am quoted (‘A last resort’: is culling foxes the only way to save Britain’s vanishing curlews?, 11 September). To be clear, Curlew Action and the Curlew Recovery Partnership England recognise the need for lethal predator control to help mitigate unsustainable curlew nest and chick predation, but not in isolation.
The future of curlew and many other ground nesting bird populations looks very uncertain unless all major factors limiting their breeding success are mitigated at landscape scale. As well as predation risk this may include habitat loss, agricultural intensification, recreational disturbance, invertebrate food availability and climate change. Curlews find themselves at the heart of many of the greatest environmental issues we face today, and high abundances of generalist predators in the UK is one of these.
Neither I nor the organisations I represent have suggested widespread and unrestricted culls of foxes and crows, but targeted, evidence-based action is required in many areas. In the long term, the goal is for the birds to live in good habitat with a sustainable population, which will always include some predation.
Mary Colwell
Director, Curlew Action; chair, Curlew Recovery Partnership