Golden plovers breed on upland heather moorland and blanket bog, with welfare challenges from habitat degradation, predation, and climate-driven phenological changes to their invertebrate prey.
Golden plover welfare is threatened by habitat degradation on their upland breeding grounds. Drainage of blanket bog dries the peat and allows vegetation succession that converts wet bog to drier grassland less suitable for nesting and invertebrate prey. Overgrazing by sheep removes the short vegetation structure that golden plovers need for nesting cover and open foraging areas. Increased predation pressure from foxes, corvids, and mustelids on degraded moors with reduced keepering causes nest failure and adult mortality. Climate change accelerating peat drying and altering invertebrate communities that chicks depend on creates additional welfare pressure during the critical breeding period.