The curlew is Britain's most at-risk breeding bird, with chick survival rates so low in many upland areas that populations cannot sustain themselves without intensive conservation management.
Individual curlew chicks face predation as their primary welfare threat. Precocial and ground-nesting, they rely on cryptic plumage and parental alarm calls for protection, but in predator-dense environments survival rates are insufficient for population maintenance. The welfare calculation is complex: predator control has welfare costs for the predators managed, but failure to act allows curlew chick predation at population-threatening scales. Conservation management that addresses habitat quality alongside predator pressure - creating structurally diverse moorland with good chick cover - is the most welfare-positive approach.