Experimental diversionary feeding of red kites Milvus milvus reduces chick predation and enhances breeding productivity of northern lapwings Vanellus vanellus ...

• Main Authors: Mason, LR, Green, RE, Hirons, GJM, Skinner, AMJ, Peault, SC, Upcott, EV, Wells, E, Wilding, DJ, Smart, J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier BV 2021
• Subjects: Lowland wet grassland; Conservation conflict; Adaptive management; Wader; Raptor; Alternative prey; Vanellus vanellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.74450; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326999

For ground-nesting and colonial bird species, predation of eggs and chicks can exert a strong negative effect on population growth and recovery. For declining populations of waders breeding on lowland wet grassland, predation management tools are available to reduce the impacts of mammalian predators (e.g. lethal control, exclusion), but potential solutions are limited when raptors, which are often themselves protected by law and not easily excluded, are responsible for predation. Diversionary feeding (DF), where predators are provided with alternative food to replace the target prey species in their diet, has been tested successfully by providing food close to nesting raptor pairs to target specific individuals. Where many individuals are involved in predation at a single prey colony, or where locating or accessing nests is difficult, provisioning DF close to the focal prey colony may be a more practical solution. Here, we test the efficacy of providing DF in this way to reduce predation by red kites, a ...