The hunting of the woodcock and its future.
The role hunters 2
Today, in our regions the woodcock will probably know difficult years in its existence. The national and international trade of woodcock is experiencing an unprecedented boom and the consequences are even more dramatic. Today, we also take from certain nesting areas in Russia, moreover on this subject, at the same time French woodcock have sharply decreased, with the ICA late in October, in some of the most developing regions of France. the west explains to a certain extent the removal of our French nesting woodcock. Only what we call true woodcock, elders, and a few others, can become aware of evolution. They see the tremendous changes that have occurred during these thirty last years .
After have read a lot of books on hunting, for the oldest dating from the 18th century, the comments and observations of the time show that the first woodcock were present in our territories in the first half of October. Today we are a month late.
Here are extracts from authors well known, real woodcock hunters, Daniel Raffejeaud and Henry Béraud , they hunted in very close regions, 80 years separate their experiences, and their findings are identical.
Daniel Raffejeaud quotes; these rare isolated who pass in September , and Henry Béraud quotes, the large woodcock passages of late October reported in the wooded dunes , and he even alludes to a huge passage of September 6, 1879 .
Same observation, but this time, 100 years separate their experiences. Michel Devort , in 1977 quotes, from September birds are reported migrating in Europe. Woodcock encountered in France at that time can be considered as sedentary.
The woodcock does not appear to be able to perform in a single night movements much greater than 500 km, it is logical that the first arrivals are not reported in France until the first half of October.
This is what we can see when examining the curves obtained in Brittany from 1973 and 1976 .
Some scientists (Ferrand , Gossmann ) observe a downward trend in nesting areas, the observation is identical in France.
Fadat, Ferrand and Gossmann, also also agree, that there are three types of migratory, the long ones which breed in the lowland regions of Russia, and for the longest, even beyond from the Urals to Western Siberia, the averages that migrate from the countries of Eastern Europe , and finally, the short migrants, and the sedentary which cover journeys of approximately 500 km which nests in France and in neighboring countries.
If we over-take a particular population, we put it in danger, in this case there may be phenomena of areas frequented in large numbers and others or there has been a strong pressure to hunt, a territory little frequented. ( Samples may be abusive in certain areas and on certain sub-populations, while elsewhere they will be without consequences, everything is a question of the relationship between the number and the pressure exerted JP Denuc 1999.
