POPULATION TRENDS of the COMMON QUAIL (Coturnix Coturnix) in FRANCE and SPAIN: CONFLICTING DATA OR CONTROVERSIAL CENSUS METHODOLOGIES?
POPULATION TRENDS OF THE COMMON QUAIL (Coturnix coturnix) IN FRANCE AND SPAIN: CONFLICTING DATA OR CONTROVERSIAL CENSUS METHODOLOGIES? Puigcerver, M.1, Eraud, C.2, García-Galea, E.1, Roux, D.2,Jiménez-Blasco, I1, Sarasa, M.3 & Rodríguez-Teijeiro, J.D.1 1. Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. 2. Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, France. 3. Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs, France. SOME FEATURES OF THE COMMON QUAIL • Migratory and nomadic Galliformes species. • Current conservation status: Least Concern (BirdLife International 2017). • Population trend: it appears to be decreasing (Birdlife International 2017). • It is very difficult to census (Gregory et al. 2005, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 360: 269-288 ). • It is a huntable species in some Mediterranean countries. Source of controversy between hunters, conservationists and wildlife managers TRYING TO CLARIFY POPULATION TRENDS • Census in: • Four breeding sites of France (2006-2016). • Two breeding sites of NE Spain (1992-2016). ACTIVE METHOD • The whole France (1996-2016), ACT method. • Prats, NE Spain (2002-2016), SOCC method. PASSIVE METHOD -Prats ACTIVE METHOD Vs PASSIVE METHOD ACTIVE METHOD: PASSIVE METHOD (ACT SURVEY): • It counts males responding to a • It counts only males singing digital female decoy. spontaneously. • 10 count points spaced by at • 5 point counts spaced by 1km. least 700 m. • Based in just one day throughout • Once a week throughout the the breeding season. breeding season. • It has a general design for 17 • Specific design for the Common breeding species. quail. • Large-scale survey (the whole • Local scale survey (2-4 breeding France) sites) INTENSIVE BUT LOCAL METHOD WEAK BUT WIDESPREAD METHOD PASSIVE METHOD PASSIVE METHOD (ACT SURVEY): PASSIVE METHOD (SOCC) • Only data from mid-May to mid- • 6 count points spaced by 500 m.
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