The discussion of the moment
In recent times we have read all about the issue of control of wood pigeon in Emilia-Romagna, and we also intervene to try to bring the discussion back to less emotional tones with a slightly more technical approach. We therefore express some concepts that we believe are fundamental to address the matter in the right terms.
1) Nesting wood pigeons (or sedentary or fake, call them what you want) are increasing dramatically in many regions of Italy, as certified by regional data, by hunting bags, by censuses of ornithological associations, and by ISPRA; regions such as Emilia and Tuscany have seen an increase in the sedentary population of over 500% in the last twenty years. Therefore, the species is in excellent health.
2) With global warming, wood pigeons have extended their nesting period, which now covers the whole of September and beyond.
3) The notable increase in the species, which in some peri-urban areas can now be defined as invasive, causes damage to agriculture, as do the ring-necked parakeet, the starling, the pigeon, the collared dove. This, as with many other species of wild fauna, causes obvious conflicts with farmers. Unless one wants to question the veracity of the expert reports, or the confusion between species, attributing the "blame" for the damage caused by pigeons to the wood pigeon
Serious damage
4) In particular, the wood pigeon can be very “dangerous” and cause serious damage that cannot be confused with the pigeon on valuable horticultural crops (cabbages, beans, peas, salads, lettuces, radicchio, etc.).
5) The annual hunting bags obtained from the Emilia hunting licenses are extremely high, with a significant increase in the number of animals compared to the average since the early opening of the wood pigeon season was reintroduced
Requests to the Region
Inspired by these data, which we believe to be quite certain and certified, regarding the Emilia-Romagna resolution, we ask the Region to make some changes to it:
– Reduction of the number of animals to be removed: it is possible to intervene in a specific manner, in companies with valuable crops, by slaughtering a few hundred animals each year at a regional level, safeguarding the harvests; the wood pigeon immediately learns from the gunshots not to frequent that field anymore
– On crops where there is a strong presence of pigeons, authorize only the killing of pigeons: the usual deterrent effect, without the need to kill wood pigeons which would learn from their “poor relatives” anyway
Finally, regarding the various press releases and everything we have read on the web in recent weeks, we would like to underline:
– we must be very careful when saying and supporting (luckily without any data) that we must hunt more so that we can reduce the number of wood pigeons; we risk a resounding own goal, given the abundant game bags certified by hunting permits.
We hope to have contributed to a discussion that is as “secular” as possible and that is the result of consultation. If consulted, these would have been the suggestions we would have brought.
You May Also Like ..
