Hunting impact on waders in Spain: effects of species protection measures

The hunting impact on waders in Spain was studied to test the efficiency of species protection measures. Using information on ringed bird recoveries in Spain of 28 species a hunting impact index was calculated. The results show a high hunting pressure similar to that of other groups of birds. The hunting impact on quarry species was higher than on protected species. The change of protection level in a group of species from quarry to protected species resulted in a decrease in hunting impact. A negative trend in the hunting impact was found during a 15-year period. This result could be due to under-reporting or falsification of death causes in the recovery report. However, recoveries of shot and dead birds showed a positive relationship in contrast with expected if found dead reports increased by falsification, suggesting that there has not been a falsification of the ring recovery reports. Nevertheless, in spite of the decrease in the hunting pressure when protection measures were applied, hunting impact remains very high on protected species for a long time and studies evaluating the impact of hunting on the population dynamics of waders needs further study.