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

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

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

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