First, know what you are up against

For most people involved in conservation, predators are an ever present problem. A few years ago, I was at a lecture hosted by the GWCT, which explored the findings of research into predator control in the uplands. Over the course of eight years, a group of GWCT-backed researchers studied the effects of controlling predators on the prevalence of five species of ground-nesting birds.

The figures showed that the sustained control of foxes and corvids allowed lapwings, curlew and red grouse to breed three times more successfully than on ground where there was no control. And in the absence of predator control, the populations declined. Another GWCT piece of research in the late 1980s, the Salisbury Plain study, explored the impact of predation on the breeding success and population density of grey partridges on two