What if giving predators food could save endangered birds?In this episode, we break down an ambitious three-year experiment in Scotland that tested diversionary feeding, providing predators with alternative food during nesting season in feeders and a window bird feeder, to protect vulnerable ground-nesting birds.
Using camera traps across dozens of sites, researchers found that hens in fed areas were far more likely to have surviving chicks, even though brood size didn’t increase. The real win? More nests survived in the first place.
According to the study (page 5), diversionary feeding more than doubled productivity, shifting predicted chicks per hen from 0.82 to 1.90, and even reversing projected population decline into population growth.
This episode explores how a simple, non-lethal intervention may offer a powerful new tool for reducing predator-prey conflict, and why it could change the future of conservation.
