Red-Legged Partridge Monitoring and Population Trends

Souchay, Guillaume; Aebischer, Nicholas J.; Arroyo, Beatriz; Blanco‐Aguiar, José Antonio; Meriggi, Alberto; Porto, Miguel; Reino, Luís; Ponce, Françoise

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-96341-5_10

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 48 publications

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“…The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is a typical species of agricultural land in southwestern Europe, where it has considerable socioeconomic value in rural environments as one of the principal small game species, including in France with ca 1.3 M birds hunted during the season 2013/14 (Aubry et al, 2016). However, despite its importance as a quarry species, populations have suffered marked declines during the last century throughout its range, including France (Souchay et al, 2022). Several reasons may explain these declines, but the most important appears to be habitat alteration, particularly changes occurring during recent decades in agrarian management systems (Delibes-Mateos et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Perrot,

Seranne,

Berceaux

et al. 2024

Peer Community Journal

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Current agricultural practices and change are the major cause of biodiversity loss. An important change associated with the intensification of agriculture in the last 50 years is the spatial homogenization of the landscape with substantial loss of such biodiversity-rich elements as seminatural linear features (hedgerows, field margins, grassy strips, etc.). In Europe, some management prescriptions serve to increase heterogeneity by the creation of these seminatural linear features which are not being used primarily for agricultural production. However, these elements are not equal in their support for biodiversity according to their structure and composition. The aim of this study is to determine the importance of landscape heterogeneity and specifically linear features on the spatial distribution of red-legged partridges, a small game species in decline in Europe. Through GPS-monitoring of adult birds, we first assess home range size throughout the year and during the breeding season, in relation to breeding status and to linear features (seminatural linear vegetation and tracks-roads for human traffic) density. Then, we focus on habitat selection during the breeding period in relation to linear features. We found that linear elements shape the use of space by red-legged partridges according to their reproductive status. Traffic routes and seminatural features structured by both herbaceous and woody cover, negatively influenced home range size. Further, breeding birds select linear elements with herbaceous cover while non-breeders select linear elements with woody cover, underlining the different needs of birds according to their breeding status. All birds selected areas near tracks, but non-breeders seemed to avoid roads. This study shows the importance for this species of the linear components that structure the agricultural landscape. We propose recommendations to promote the presence of the red-legged partridge in this agricultural environment but also of the biodiversity in general.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Perrot,

Seranne,

Berceaux

et al. 2024

Peer Community Journal

Self Cite

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Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Perrot,

Séranne,

Berceaux

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Current agricultural practices and change are the major cause of biodiversity loss. An important change associated with the intensification of agriculture in the last 50 years is the spatial homogenization of the landscape with substantial loss of such biodiversity-rich elements as seminatural linear feature (hedgerows, field margins, grass strips, etc.). In Europe, management prescriptions serve to increase heterogeneity by the creation of these seminatural and linear features which are not being used primarily for agricultural production. However, these elements are not equal in their support for biodiversity according to their structure and composition. The aim of this study is to determine the importance of landscape heterogeneity and specifically linear features on the spatial distribution of red-legged partridges, a small game species in decline in Europe. Through GPS-monitoring of adult birds, we first assess home range size throughout the year and during the breeding season, in relation to breeding status and to linear features density (semi-natural linear vegetation and tracks-roads for human traffic). Then, we focus on habitat selection in relation to linear landscape features during the breeding period. We found that linear elements shape the use of space by red-legged partridges according to their reproductive status. Traffic routes and semi-natural features structured by both herbaceous and woody cover, negatively influenced home range size. Further, breeding birds select linear elements with herbaceous cover while non-breeders select linear elements with woody cover, underlining the different needs of birds according to their breeding status. All birds selected areas near tracks, but non-breeders seemed to avoid roads. This study shows the importance for this species of the linear components that structure the agricultural landscape. We propose recommendations to promote the presence of the red-legged partridge in this agricultural environment but also of the biodiversity in general.

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Using integrated wildlife monitoring for quantifying the impact of emerging Bagaza virus in red-legged partridges in Portugal, 2012-2024

Queirós,

Costa,

de Mello

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Bagaza virus, a vector-borne flavivirus that causes significant mortality in wild bird species, emerged in Portugal in September 2021. This study used integrated wildlife monitoring to quantify its impact on a natural population of red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) in southern Portugal. We constructed a baseline model of population dynamics prior to the outbreak (2012-2021) and used this model to predict population size in subsequent years (2022-2024). This model, which included population abundance and demographic data of red-legged partridge, as well as climatic variables, showed a strong fit to the observed data, and the difference between the predicted and observed population size in 2022 suggests a Bagaza-induced mortality rate of at least 59% (95% CI 52-66%). In addition to enabling the adaptive management of populations, our results demonstrate that integrated wildlife monitoring offers epidemiological insights for risk assessment, highlighting its role in proactive wildlife disease surveillance within the One Health framework.

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Red-Legged Partridge Monitoring and Population Trends

Cited by 3 publications

References 48 publications

Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Use of linear features by red-legged partridges in an intensive agricultural landscape: implications for landscape management in farmland

Using integrated wildlife monitoring for quantifying the impact of emerging Bagaza virus in red-legged partridges in Portugal, 2012-2024

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