The Red-Legged Partridge: A historical overview on distribution, status, research and hunting

Abstract

The Red-legged Partridge is endemic to the Mediterranean region. It is a resident species from southwestern Europe. Along its range, its abundance is characterized by low abundances in areas with wet climate such as the northern fringe of the Iberian Peninsula and the Atlantic coast of Portugal, France and the UK, and high abundances in areas with a Mediterranean climate such as the southwestern region in Portugal and the central and southern regions of peninsular Spain. The Red-legged Partridge still has a very large range, but their populations underwent a large decline and range contraction starting in the twentieth century and particularly marked since 1970. The reasons for the population decline are related to the loss of habitat caused by agricultural intensification, the risk of hybridization with individuals released from farms, excessive hunting pressure and poor management on use of biocides and pesticides. Efforts made in recent decades to research the Red-legged Partridge have produced results of direct importance in the conservation and management of this species, especially regarding the negative effect of releasing farm-reared partridges on wild populations by increasing overall mortality and the existence of a high number of wild populations with allochthonous lineages, the important role of carotenoids as honest quality signals in the sexual selection and how landscape changes affect the distribution of the species at the geographical level. It is true, however, that important gaps in knowledge remain related to evaluating the time needed to recover a wild population that is not subject to hunting activity based on the influence of game management, habitat structure and predators, the proportion of animals released relative to wild individuals and the effect of climate change on the distribution of the Red-legged Partridge.