An article published in the magazine "Conservation Science and Practice", released in March 2019 (Conservation implications of misidentification and killing of protected species DOI: 10.1111 / csp2.24), rigorously analyzes the problem of confusion between huntable species with those that may resemble you. The case concerns two republics of Arctic Russia where the mute swan (Cygnus olor) and the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) are hunted in the presence of the protected species lesser swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii), judged to be decreasing across Europe.
The authors of the research, English, Russian and Latvian scholars, met the hunters of the two Russian republics and had them fill out a questionnaire to verify the ability to recognize the protected species. lesser swan from those that can be hunted, and to evaluate the incidence of culling due to confusion. The conclusion was that there are lesser swan culls, both for confusion, and for one's own will, with some differences between different strata of the population. It has been observed that the ability to distinguish between the two species can be improved by making hunters aware of the problem and educating them with techniques for recognizing huntable and protected species.
The authors mentioned in the original work the initiatives of the ACMA-FIdC a few years ago for the recognition of the fighter and the tobacco-fed brunette, respectively by other protected waders and by the huntable duckling species. This is the passage that concerns us: "For example, the Italian Hunters' Association (Associazione Cacciatori Migratoristi Acquatici) was instrumental in preparing and distributing visual guides for hunters which addressed the possible confusion of Ruff Philomachus pugnax and Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca with morphologically similar species (AEWA, 2015) ". The conclusion of the article is clear, no hunting ban is required for the two species, while the winning way is the involvement of hunters in moments of self-evaluation and training.
Exactly how much Hunting Federation has been proposing for years, and which is moreover written in the Guide to the Discipline of European Hunting, but which is not accepted by ISPRA which unfortunately has continued stubbornly for decades to request a total ban on hunting tufted duck, even in the presence of favorable changes in the demography of the smoked duck. For Federcaccia the commitment continues to pass the correct concepts in the management of huntable species, and we will guarantee the same approach in all Italian regions, asking for depart from the opinion of ISPRA and to keep all species, carrying out training courses instead of hasty and unjustified prohibitions.