Birds risk wipeout if grouse moors unmanaged, landowners claim

Ending grouse moor management risks the decline or local extinction of ground-nesting birds, a study claims.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) looked at the potential impact on threatened species such as the curlew, golden plover, lapwing, black grouse, hen harrier and merlin in southwest Scotland.

The organisation, which promotes shooting and other management as “an essential part of nature conservation”, found that the number of hen harriers on a keepered moor had increased but that they declined in areas without management.

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