In 2021 and 2022, no hunting of Turtle Doves was permitted in France, Spain or Portugal for the first time. This was an incredible respite for the UK’s fastest-declining species, given that loss of breeding habitat and unsustainable hunting are its primary threats. A recently published paper highlights some of the data that supported this momentous decision. Today’s guest blog by Dr Lara Moreno-Zarate from the Institute for Research in Hunting Resources in Spain and lead author, explains.
In 2018 the European Commission (EC) developed an Action Plan for the conservation of the European Turtle Dove since populations of this bird have been declining in Europe for several decades. Spain holds the largest breeding population in Western Europe, but it was also the country where the most Turtle Doves were being hunted (shot), with an average annual harvest of 950,000 doves between 2006 and 2017. The Spanish population declined by 37% between 1996 and 2018, although numbers there and in France seem to have stabilised since 2013.
Turtle Dove feeding on the ground (c) Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Data collection
In collaboration with hunting associations, researchers from the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), the Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC), the University of Extremadura and the RSPB, collected daily Turtle Dove hunting records from shooting estates spread across Catalonia, Andalusia, Castilla la Mancha, and Extremadura.
Between 2015 and 2019, and prior to the introduction of the EU hunting moratorium, researchers collected hunting data to estimate the proportion of Turtle Doves killed or injured but not collected. Known as crippling losses, this parameter was previously unknown for Turtle Doves and therefore not included in the official published national hunting statistics.
Underestimated hunting bags
The study showed that mortality derived from hunting was underestimated by at least 9.6%, which implies that for the years preceding the moratorium when it was still allowed to hunt, around 90.000 additional doves were shot but not retrieved, and therefore not recorded in national statistics. This key piece of information meant that previous studies assessing the sustainability of hunting had underestimated the true numbers killed each year and the likely impact of hunting on the western European population.
The study also showed that the number of Turtle Doves shot on a particular hunting estate on a particular day increased with the numbers of participating hunters – a relationship that may seem intuitive, but which had not been previously recorded. This finding highlights the importance of limiting the numbers of participating hunters as a potential policy mechanism for regulating the total number of birds shot However, this aspect of hunting practice has not previously been regulated by the Spanish hunting authorities which tend to focus on other parameters like the maximum numbers of doves each hunter can shoot on a single day.
Younger birds taken
The researchers also found that a higher proportion of juveniles than adults were being shot especially at the beginning of the season in August when the numbers of doves shot usually peaks. Approximately two-thirds of all shot birds were first-years, which is higher than the 56% of young expected in a stable dove population. Young doves were apparently more susceptible to hunting than adults.
This imbalance between the hunting bags and the population structure of Turtle Doves should be considered in future demographic models of the species. Other studies highlight that the survival of juveniles is a critical parameter determining the overall stability of turtle dove populations, so these findings will inform and improve future efforts to build reliable demographic models to inform future adaptive harvest management.
The moratorium
This study was critical in helping improve game management of the Turtle Dove through the EU Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM) mechanism – a tool for the management of game species based on a participatory decision-making process underpinned by science.
Adaptive harvest management is an approach for simultaneously managing and learning about natural resources and their resilience to anthropogenic harvest. The EC is using AHM as a tool to ensure that any hunting is conducted sustainably and in line with the conservation principles of the EU Birds Directive.
In the case of the turtle dove, where previous levels of hunting were shown to be unsustainable, this meant imposing a temporary ban on hunting from 2021 onwards until the population showed signs of recovery and, at the same time, the competent authorities in the Member States had sufficient control and enforcement mechanisms in place. Hunting may return in the future but, until Turtle Dove numbers recover, will probably remain significantly reduced and strictly controlled.
This and previous studies suggest that the sustainable management of Turtle Dove hunting will require the authorities to regulate aspects of hunting practice such like the numbers of hunters permitted on any particular day, and the hunting method employed (fixed position or driven hunting tends to harvest more Turtle Doves than walked-up shooting, for example).
Previous policy has regulated the number of permitted hunting days and the duration of the hunting season which in Spain have proven to be ineffectual in limiting the total numbers of Turtle Doves shot.
The full paper is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment where it is free to download: Age ratio, crippling losses and factors affecting daily hunting bags of European Turtle Dove in Spain: Implications for sustainable harvest management of a declining migratory species
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