By BRIAN TILLEY brian.tilley@hexham-courant.co.uk

Published at 09:44, Friday, 12 March 2010

CARRION crows and foxes should be culled in Tynedale, according to a nine-year study on Otterburn Moors.

For the predators are threatening the survival of increasingly scarce wading birds such as curlew, lapwing and golden plover.

Scientists from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, a leading research charity, spent nine years looking into the effects of predator control on the breeding success of threatened moorland wading birds.

The Upland Predation Experiment is one of the longest running studies of its kind ever undertaken.

The research, published this week in the leading science publication The Journal of Applied Ecology, shows for the first time that the control of common predators such as crows and foxes significantly improves the breeding success of curlew, lapwing and golden plover – all species of conservation concern.

The birds are three times more likely to breed successfully if predator numbers are reduced.

Populations of opportunistic predators such as foxes and corbie crows are at an all time high and the research claims to show they are hampering the recovery of many much-loved and vulnerable bird species.

The national fox population for example, is estimated to be some 240,000 adults, and, since 1961, the carrion crow population has risen to 1,580,000 breeding adults.

Head of policy and public affairs with the trust, Dr Stephen Tapper, said: “If we want to reverse the decline in some bird populations, we need to do more than simply improve countryside habitats.

“Environment schemes on their own, without predator control, seem unable to give rise to an abundance of breeding waders or even bring about a significant improvement in sparse populations.”

Dr Tapper pointed out that foxes and carrion crows were scarce in many parts of the country a hundred years ago, but lack of control meant they were now very common and ubiquitous.

He said: “Waders flourish on grouse moors because they are protected from the relentless predation by carrion crows and foxes during the breeding season.

“In the uplands, we cannot expect to maintain populations of vulnerable species like lapwing and curlew without reducing numbers of some predators.”

His views were shared by Dr Kathy Fletcher, a senior upland scientist with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and one of the authors of the study.

She said: “Gamekeepers routinely reduce the number of predators on grouse moors and this is essential for boosting the red grouse population.

“Our work shows that this also benefits species like lapwing, golden plover and curlew as well.

“In our experiment we were able to exclude the effects of other moorland management, such as patchwork heather burning so we can be confident our results were attributable solely to predator control.

“It would be very sad if we lost a significant fraction of our bird life through want of a little wildlife management.”

She said the evidence from the research made it clear that such losses were not inevitable.

The North Pennines, which were almost entirely managed for grouse shooting and hosted high concentrations of waders, stood as a testament to the difference

The North Pennines hosted 1,400 pairs of golden plover, 3,930 pairs of curlew and 330 pairs of dunlin.

By contrast Dartmoor National Park, where no predator control takes place, had only three pairs of curlew and a dozen pairs of lapwing.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk