Like every year, in mid-August the mid-season hunting period begins, when the hunting of certain species of birds that are in alarming decline is authorized. Among them is the common quail, with a population decline of more than 70% between 1998-2018.
For this reason, the SEO/BirdLife organization has recalled that “the hunting use of these species should not be authorized because they present an unfavorable conservation status, as indicated by European legal regulations.”
But nevertheless, an average of 1.1 million common quail are hunted annually in Spain. This excessive hunting pressure is the first cause of direct mortality for the species, says the entity.
Added to this are other indirect causes, such as certain practices linked to intensive agriculture, genetic introgressions due to the release of farm quail or the destruction and loss of habitats, which are causing a serious decline in this species.
Following the recent situation that led the European Commission to launch a infringement procedure against Spain for allowing the hunting of the European turtle dove Despite the fact that its alarming decline had been demonstrated, “it is necessary for the Administrations to guarantee compliance with the moratorium to which the state and autonomous communities are obliged.”
“Otherwise, the Commission would be forced to impose a harsh economic sanction on our country. These same reasons should make the Administrations evaluate the negative repercussions of authorizing the hunting of other species that also present a very pronounced decline, as is the case of the common quail”, adds SEO.
The hunters against SEO
The hunters, of course, do not agree with the requests made by SEO and accuse it of handling false data to support its claims.
The Andalusian Hunting Federation, in a message published through his Twitter account, has responded to conservationists: «They have not invested a euro in managing habitats; they have not carried out a single census with scientific validity; not even in the middle of a heat wave will they set foot on the field to bring water or food to the quail. Against lies and shamelessness, data».
The federation thus alludes to the conclusions of the first year of the study of the project Coturnix, whose results show an estimated population of 3.2 million individuals in Spain, far from the 225,000 that SEO/BirdLife claims there are.
The hunters take advantage of an interview published in the SEO’s own magazine with the Professor of Zoology at the University of Barcelona, José Domingo Rodríguez Teijeiro, an expert on quail, who declared: “That there is a mortality of 1.2 million quails in Spain (imagine what happens in Italy, Portugal, France, Greece, plus those that are lost due to agricultural activity) does not seem to affect the size of the population.
Rodríguez Teijeiro assured that “currently, as far as our data reaches, the size of the population remains constant. The species may be able to overcome the impact of hunting because it has a very high reproductive rate: the quail can reproduce two or three times in the same season. In addition, it is an opportunistic, nomadic animal, not tied to a territory, which is capable of overcoming the adversities of its climate and habitat, establishing itself in those areas where the environment is more suitable».
With the aim of recovering their populations, the SEO considers that the regional and state administrations should establish mechanisms to reduce hunting pressure on species in an unfavorable situation, such as the quail, and develop habitat management and conservation plans that guarantee the recovery of game species in decline.
In addition to establishing temporary moratoriums or special prohibitions for biological reasons for the hunting of these species in decline, in parallel, SEO/BirdLife proposes:
-Improve the management of agricultural ecosystems: respect hedgerows and mosaics, limit the use of herbicides and insecticides, create perimeter strips without treatment and take into account, in the reform of the CAP, that human activities must be compatible with the conservation of heritage biological.
-Apply measures of habitat management and improvement.
-In case of not approving moratoriums, delay the dates of the closed season and reduce the hunting period, with more restricted quotas, limiting activity in very dry years –especially in the case of quail– as they are years of low productivity and high predation.
–Population monitoring, both at state and regional level, and in coordination with other countries, through censuses and studies of productivity and reproductive success.
–Increased inspection work by the autonomous communities, to guarantee that the moratorium on the hunting of the European turtle dove is complied with throughout the state.
-Monitoring of the annual volume of catches and study of the incidence of hunting (dates, quotas, etc.) in these species.
It may interest you: The Government approves requesting the protection of the turtle dove in Spain