The Lapwing Appeal

Pioneering research breakthrough

For many reasons the country’s national conservation strategy is not working well enough. Without a focus on solutions that achieve greater breeding success, local declines may become local extinctions. There is evidence that this is happening right now, and it may become more and more prevalent unless the following critical questions are answered soon:

• Why is the breeding success of waders such as the lapwing so poor?
• What is disturbing the nests?
• What is eating the eggs?
• Can we translate game management principles so that they are adopted by conservation organisations across the UK to benefit other wildlife?
• Can we move national conservation policies to focus on breeding success rather than just habitat improvement?

In the upland moors at Otterburn, our scientists painstakingly recorded the effect of managing sites for habitat alone against sites that also included selective predator control. The results were amazing. In fully managed sites, waders
were three times more likely to raise a chick. On the sites that were managed for habitat only the breeding success was so poor it could not even sustain the existing population levels. We need to find out how to translate this thinking to the low ground.

To find out how we can do this read more....... 

Your help is vital so please support this appeal today.  Thank you.