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Using Argos for turtle dove management

Sep 27, 2018

Hervé Lormée, of the French Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, will present his work Argos at the European User Conference on Argos Wildlife (EUCAW). The European Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur shows one of the most dramatic population decline among all farmland bird species breeding in Western Europe, abundance having been reduced by 78% over the 1980-2013 period (PECBMS 2014). Accordingly, the species was recently listed as vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red list (BirdLife 2015).

Changes in agricultural practices and the consecutive degradation of breeding conditions most likely play a role in population decline, through a reduction in breeding productivity (Browne & Aebischer 2004). However, this trans-Saharan migrant species spends two thirds of its annual cycle either along migration routes or in its sub-sahelian wintering quarters. Consequently, the species may also face additional environmental threats, with significant consequences on population dynamics (Newton 2004). In this context, the identification of migration routes, major stopover sites and wintering habitats is a crucial issue to predict the consequences of changes in land use, as well as the impact of hunting pressure, on population dynamics, and for developing appropriate conservation measures (Kirby et al. 2008). Taking advantage of the miniaturised Argos solar powered satellite transmitter (PTT), we report here tracking data obtained in the course of a pioneering study conducted from 2013 to 2016 on Turtle Doves tagged in France.

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