Grouse moors could play a vital role in saving Scotland’s threatened wading birds, it has been revealed.
Legal predator control by gamekeepers has helped ground-nesting waders such as curlews and golden plover to breed more successfully according to a nine-year study by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Now the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) is calling for the Scottish Government to take decisive steps to halt the decline in bird numbers.
A new breeding bird study from the British Trust for Ornithology has shown that lapwing and curlew populations have plummeted by 56% over 17 years, while golden plover numbers dropped 18%.
SGA chairman Alex Hogg said: “Proper grouse moor management, with rotational heather burning and the legal control of foxes, carrion crows, stoats and weasels has helped rare wading birds.
“These latest figures are a real warning, though.
“In areas where wildlife is not being managed the declines are rapid and scientists predict we will start to lose them from some key areas altogether.
“The Government needs to look at what is causing these declines in our wading birds and act decisively. If they need to monitor these birds to see what is happening, they need to do so as soon as possible before there’s no way back.”