Reconciling economic and ecological sustainability: can non-intensive hunting of red-legged partridges be economically profitable?

Gastrointestinal parasites in red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) hunted in Spain: a warning to game managers

Red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) populations are currently declining in the Iberian Peninsula, mainly due to habitat degradation and hunting pressure. In addition, the release of farm-reared partridges may introduce pathogens, including parasites, to wild populations. The presence of digestive parasites in red-legged partridges hunted in fifteen Spanish provinces was studied. Fecal samples and gastrointestinal tracts were collected, analyzed, and the morphometric identification of parasites was carried out. Eimeria spp. oocysts, nematode, cestode and trematode eggs were observed in fecal samples. Adult nematodes (Ascaridia galli, Ascaridia compar, Heterakis gallinarum, Heterakis tenuicauda, Trichostrongylus tenuis, Subulura spp., Cyrnea spp. and Aonchotheca caudinflata), tapeworms (Raillietina tetragona, R. echinobothrida, R. micracantha, Rhabdometra nigropunctata, and Choanotaenia infundibulum), and trematodes (Brachylaima spp., Brachylecithum spp., Dicrocoelium spp.) were identified in the gastrointestinal tracts. Significant statistical differences were found among climatic regions in the prevalence and intensity of Eimeria spp. infection, median intensity and the prevalence of indirect life cycle helminths, with Southern areas always showing higher infection values. The study provides information of the health status of red-legged partridges in Spain, highlighting the risk associated with the release of farm-reared partridges for restocking purposes. This should be taken into account to improve management strategies for the long-term conservation of the species.

Estate-level decision-making and socioeconomics determine annual harvest in the European Turtle-dove in central Spain

Designing evidence-based policies that regulate harvest levels is essential to avoid unsustainable hunting. This requires a good understanding of the relationship between bag sizes and regulatory mechanisms of harvest, and particularly of how these mechanisms are implemented locally and how they vary between game estates. The European Turtle-dove (Streptopelia turtur) has decreased by 30-49% since the late 1990s. The three main identified threats for the species are habitat loss, illegal killing and unsustainable legal hunting. We assessed how turtle dove estate-level harvest varies in relation to hunter density, number of hunting days, the adopted hunting method, game management intensity and the economic investment of the estate. Additionally, we assessed whether estate-level harvest had declined concomitantly with the population decline, and whether trends had been similar in relation to hunting method. We analysed Hunting Management Plans and Annual Hunting Reports of several thousand estates in central Spain, one of the main breeding and hunting areas of the species. Annual estate harvest was positively associated with hunter density, and was higher on estates that offered fixed-position hunting compared to those that only provided walked-up shooting. Importantly, these decisions are made by managers at the estate level and are not directly regulated by policy. We also found that more turtle doves are harvested on estates that invest more money in management, suggesting that the socioeconomic characteristics of the estate also influence local decisions on harvest intensity. Average annual estate-level harvest declined by 27% between 2007 and 2018, accompanied by a switch from fixed-position to walked-up hunting practices. Our study indicates that reducing hunting density or the number of fixed-position hunting days may be the most efficient ways to reduce turtle dove harvest, and that factors influencing estate-level decision-making have to be understood if reduction of hunting pressure in declining species is sought.