Doctor Michael Sorrenti of the Wildlife Hunting Environmental Management Office of Hunting Federation, reports two interesting videos (whose links are given at the end of the news) produced by the Spanish Artemisan Foundation, which in collaboration with the Spanish and Portuguese Governments, Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, the Portuguese Hunting Federation and numerous regional hunting delegations, has launched the Recovery Program of the Wild Turtledove in the Iberian Peninsula (PIRTE).
Spain is home to the largest nesting population of turtle doves in Europe, and the highest hunting levy among EU countries. The number of pairs of turtle doves has significantly decreased in Spain and in general in the entire western area of the species, for this reason the Commission sent a warning letter to France and Spain last July regarding the species and the need to intervene on the habitats and on the hunting management. These videos demonstrate the response of the Spanish government: an intervention program on different levels, including first of all an important action on habitats and on the increase of food availability in the reproductive period. A zoology professor at the University of Extremadura clearly states that the lack of feeding during this period is at the basis of the poor reproductive success of the species, while a good food availability allows the success of more broods and the production of more young.
Even the hunting rules will have a change with a reduction of days and placement of the sampling in order to insist on the Spanish populations and less on those in migratory transit from other countries. In Spain it is interesting that the populations of nesting turtle doves are in good condition where habitat management is implemented for hunting interest, while where the species is not interesting for hunting there is a significant decline. For this reason, the proposed moratorium for hunting has been rejected by Spain and many other countries: where there is no interest in hunting there is no positive action on habitats. A cardinal principle for the conservation of species, which we would like to be adopted also by the competent Italian Ministries, in particular the MATTM and ISPRA, which are drafting the National Plan on turtledove.