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

Keeping predator numbers down may be last hope to save the ground-nesting birds – but critics say real problem is farming practices

Should we be organising mass culls of foxes and crows in order to save the plummeting numbers of curlews? That is the argument put forward by certain bird conservation groups.

The curlew, one of the most charismatic birds in the UK, with their curved beaks and distinctive call, has been disappearing from the countryside, declining by 60% in 25 years. It’s just one of a number of ground-nesting birds which are vanishing – research has found that they are 86% more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies.