Empirical evidence that diversionary feeding increases productivity in ground-nesting birds

The recovery of predator populations may negatively impact other species of conservation concern, leading to conservation conflicts. Evidence-based solutions are needed to resolve such conflicts. Robust, large-scale field experiments provide the most rigorous evidence to justify new forms of intervention. Still, they are hard to implement and often call for indirect and non-invasive monitoring. In this study, we used camera traps to experimentally evaluate diversionary feeding to reduce conservation conflict and non-invasively monitor capercaillie hen productivity over 3 years under a randomized control (unfed) and treatment (fed) design. Diversionary feeding significantly increased the probability that a detected hen would have a brood. Brood size decreased over time, but the change did not differ between fed and unfed treatments. Importantly, the increased chance of having a brood with diversionary feeding substantially increases overall productivity at the end of the sampling season. This was just 0.82 (0.35–1.29) chicks per hen without diversionary feeding, and more than doubled to 1.90 (1.24–2.55) with diversionary feeding. This study provides compelling empirical evidence that diversionary feeding positively affects productivity, offering an effective non-lethal solution to the increasingly common conservation conflict where both predator and prey are afforded protection.