After the ban on hunting, the population of the turtledove (Streptopelia turtur) increased by as much as 25 percent in Western Europe between 2021 and 2023, which represents an additional 400,000 breeding pairs throughout this region. News of the recovery comes after the governments of France, Spain and Portugal confirmed that the ban on hunting will be extended for the fourth year in a row.
The turtledove is a lovely bird from the pigeon family, somewhat smaller and more colorful than the common coots: recognizable by its brownish wings dotted with black spots and black spots with white lines on both sides of the neck. Characteristic, hoarse, flickering advertising, like purring. Avoiding settlements, it lives in colorful landscapes with bushes and trees in plains and hills. It breeds in Europe (western Palearctic), and winters in sub-Saharan Africa.
By 2018, in France, Spain and Portugal alone, about a million of these birds were being killed each autumn, which proved unsustainable for the species, so a new management system was established, which began with a temporary ban on hunting. Visible results after only three years gave the impetus to ban hunting for the fourth year in a row.
As part of a long-term sustainable management process, this hunting moratorium required an international turtle conservation action plan. The development of this plan was launched in 2018 and brought together experts who, collaborating across national borders, determined what actions were needed to ensure the future of turtle doves, including the population of this species in Great Britain.
This plan makes it clear that the second priority action for turtle conservation is securing and preserving the habitat of this species. This especially applies to countries where, from the 20th century to the present day, the industrialization of agriculture has drastically changed habitats.
“The rapid start of recovery of the breeding population of turtledoves in Western Europe from 2021 shows us the value of a well-researched and well-implemented conservation action plan. The international cooperation plan showed us what actions are needed, to what extent and where. With our scientific advice, governments, land managers and hunters have implemented the plan’s recommendations, and we are just beginning to see success,” said lead author of the report to the European Commission, Dr. Carles Carboneras, from the Spanish Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC).
The report, prepared for the European Commission, was compiled by an international team of scientists who advise governments on how to manage turtledove populations in a sustainable manner. The temporary ban on hunting, which is in force in France, Spain and Portugal from 2021, is the result of the same team’s advice based on scientific facts.
In Serbia, ornithologists have been fighting for the protection of the turtle dove and quail for almost two decades, in order to warn in time that the populations of these birds are declining and that they are seriously threatened by hunting, which over time has become much more harmful to biodiversity, combined with other threatening factors such as the ubiquitous disappearance of various wild habitats and their conversion for agricultural purposes. Hunting of these two species has been encouraged for years through hunting tourism, which brought foreign hunters and enabled them to hunt in insufficiently controlled conditions. The fact that in rich restaurants of Western European countries turtledoves and quails were considered expensive rarities of absurd gastronomy, further encouraged the smuggling of these birds from Serbia. Both of these species have been hunted in hundreds of thousands of pieces for decades.
“The struggle bore fruit only in 2021, when the quail hunting season was shortened, and a moratorium on turtledove hunting came into force, however, there is no clear action plan for managing and preserving the population of these species in Serbia. During the hunting season, no significant increase in the turtle dove population was observed in Serbia, however, in Vojvodina flocks of several thousand individuals were observed during the fall, and such flocks have not been observed for decades,” said Milan Ružić, executive director of the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia.
The three-year ban on turtledove hunting has expired, and the Forest Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management has not announced to the public what it intends to do with the status of the turtledove, which is otherwise on the Red List of Birds in the Republic of Serbia with the status of an endangered species (VU) and a small breeding population of only 49,000-68,000 couples whose long-term trend is downward and unfavorable.
Source: Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia
Source: energetskiportal.rs
