The population of this migratory bird has fallen by 80% in Europe over the past 40 years and is subject to adaptive species management measures in France.
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The government has extended the ban on turtledove hunting for a year, according to a decree published on Thursday (August 18th). This migratory bird whose population has collapsed in Europe was first protected by the Council of State in 2020. “Until July 30, 2023, turtle dove hunting [Streptopelia turtur] is suspended throughout the metropolitan territory”specifies the decree of the Ministry of Ecological Transition published in the Official Journal.
This is the third consecutive hunting campaign for which harvesting of this species is prohibited. For the 2020 hunting campaign, the government authorized the shooting of 17,460 turtle doves. But the Council of State, seized by several associations including the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), had suspended the government decree in September 2020.
The following summer, the government then issued a first decree suspending this hunt, which has now been extended. “We are obviously satisfied that the guns are up”reacted to AFP Yves Verdilhac, director general of the LPO“but we should at least extend this ban for five years and even remove the turtle dove from the list of huntable species”.
The turtle dove, a migratory bird whose population has fallen by 80% in Europe over the past 40 years, is the subject of adaptive species management measures in France. The number of animals that can be killed is fixed after scientific expertise on the conservation status of each species. A scientific committee recommended in 2019 to no longer hunt the turtle dove, or, at worst, to kill 1.3% of the estimated numbers in France, or 18,300 birds at the time.