Is the Nature 2000 Network associated with small-game bag results?

Abstract

Small-game hunting is of great economic importance in Portugal. Game managers claim that game management restrictions regarding shoots inside the Nature 2000 Network negatively influence small-game bags, particularly of hare, wild rabbit and red-legged partridge. We analyse whether different habitat and game management practices are associated with game bags of those species in Alentejo (Portugal). Game bag records from five hunting seasons referring to shoots both inside and outside Nature 2000 sites were analysed. Significant differences concerning habitat and game management descriptors were found between shoots inside and outside Nature 2000 sites. However, this ecological network does not seem to correlate with hare and red-legged partridge game bags, whilst it may negatively influence wild rabbit hunting results. Considering that habitat quality for wild rabbit is rather poor inside the studied Nature 2000 sites, further investigation is needed of the possible negative influence of this ecological network on the species' game bag. Hare game bags increase with extensive non-irrigated agricultural fields and orchards. Besides these two habitats, red-legged partridge game bags are also favoured by cork oak montado where predators are controlled. The game bags of the three small-game species studied increase with hunting effort. Further, our results suggest that there is a positive relation between hunting effort and small-game population abundance.

Wild Rabbit Management in the Iberian Peninsula: State of the Art and Future Perspectives for Iberian Lynx Conservation

“…Nearly the entire Iberian territory can be potentially devoted to hunting purposes at some level, with important revenues coming from this sector. Around 1 million and 300.000 hunters are registered, respectively, in Spain and Portugal, and in the latter alone hunting activity accounts for 365 million euros each year [52]. Therefore, one of the most readily available tools for rabbit recovery in hunting reserves is game management.…”

Effectiveness of habitat management in the recovery of low-density populations of wild rabbit

“…In Portugal and Spain, wild rabbits are also of great importance as game species, with their hunting revenues being an important income for many rural estates (Virgós et al 2007;Paixão et al 2009). Thus, wild rabbit population recovery may serve both conservation and socioeconomic purposes.…”

Does short‐term habitat management for the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have lasting effects?

“…It is an important source of food for various carnivores and birds of prey, such as the red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), the Egyptian mongoose ( Herpestes ichneumon ) or the eagle owl ( Bubo bubo ), including some endangered species, such as the Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) and the imperial eagle ( Aquila adalberti ; Delibes & Hiraldo, ; Delibes‐Mateos, Delibes, Ferreras, & Villafuerte, ; Jaksic & Soriguer, ). Within its original distribution, it stands also as one of the most harvested game species, with high socioeconomic value (Paixão, Godinho, & Santos, ; Villafuerte, Viñuela, & Blanco, ). In recent decades, wild rabbits have suffered a >90% population decline (Cortés‐Avizanda, Colomer, Margalida, Ceballos, & Donázar, ; Ferreira, Paupério, & Alves, ; Virgós, Cabezas‐Díaz, & Lozano, ) with severe consequences for the specialist predator populations that depend on them.…”