Gray Partridges: Once queens of the cultivated plains, today partridges are slowly disappearing. To put a stop to the situation, careful censuses and well thought out sampling plans would be enough. Here's how it could be done.
Partridges are disappearing, and this is nothing new, yet it seems that few are aware of it or are interested in what should be considered a real catastrophe. The first question that arises is why? Easy. There are at least three reasons. They want healthy environments in which to live, and the ones we can offer them are not always. They are rather poisoned by pesticides, chemicals and pollution that destroy entomofauna, ie the presence of all those insects that are essential nourishment for the protection of the species. Machines and industrialization have upset the world of agriculture as we knew it thirty years ago. Everything must be within easy reach of the car, everything must be easy to reach and convenient to plow, water and cut. There is no longer any space for all those places that were once a place of refuge for partridges: rows of trees, hedges, groves that were beautiful to look at but also a source of wood for the farmers and forage for the animals.
THEincrease in hunters, which increased surprisingly after the post-war economic boom. An attempt was made to change this drastic situation in the most wrong way that could come to mind: with the repopulation campaigns. To put it simply, an attempt has been made to increase the number of galliformes in genus and starne specifically, by importing specimens from abroad and placing them in the Italian territory. In other cases, repopulation has been attempted thanks to specimens coming from farms, completely unable to live in the natural world. The result was drastic for at least two reasons: the Italic species mixed with others, creating young partridges unsuitable for survival in our territories, and partridges from farms, totally devoid of anti-predatory instinct, were looted in a very short time by the wild and by hunters.
Galliforms like ungulates
The answer for the definitive conclusion of the problem would actually be simpler than what is believed: it would be enough, for example, that the galliformes were treated exactly as is done with the ungulates which are guaranteed collection plans. These allow for the culling of such a number of specimens that it will not affect the entire population, rather it will benefit its survival. Exactly as it happens for ungulates, the starting point should be the censuses, preparatory to any subsequent action. The censuses have in fact the purpose of ascertaining the possible presence and consistency of populations in the territory. The most effective in the case of partridges and galliformes more generally are the singing censuses. Here is how they work: we proceed with the use of a recorder immediately after dawn; acoustic prompts are given and any responses received in return are noted. Since the partridge is a sedentary animal, the calculation of the songs in response to our call will give us a realistic number of the specimens present in the area. The next step takes place with the help of pointing dogs that have to fly the entire territory in such a way that it is easy to establish the real density of animals in certain locations.
Everything would come back in favor of hunting, especially if you think in the long term: to date, in fact, the gray partridge is a huntable species. The only constraint for hunters is that each one kills no more than five specimens. This is an arbitrary number since there is no idea how many partridges are in the hunting area. To be clear: without annual censuses it is not possible to really know if even a shortage of 10 specimens is really sustainable for the partridge population that reside there.
Census hypothesis
How to proceed? Simple, through annual censuses, repeated in summer and at the end of the hunting season. Only in this way would it be possible to keep the population of parcels present on site under control and establish, season after season, the rate that can be reduced. In this way the culls will not lead to the elimination of the population with all due respect to partridges and hunters.