The curlew is one of the UK's most urgent conservation priorities, with welfare challenges from nest failure on intensively managed lowland farmland.
Curlew welfare at nest sites is acutely compromised by predation pressure and agricultural disturbance on lowland farmland. Adults that repeatedly lose nests experience the energetic cost and stress of multiple failed breeding attempts without successful reproduction. Chick welfare on the rare occasions that eggs hatch is compromised by the availability of wet, invertebrate-rich habitat for feeding. Predator management, nest protection through GPS monitoring, and delayed grass cutting have been shown to substantially improve breeding success and welfare of breeding curlews. The species conservation crisis is also a welfare crisis - populations experiencing chronic reproductive failure without successful chick-rearing represent persistent welfare-compromised individuals.