We read with interest in La Mordorée of January 2018, the study on the collection books for the 2016/2017 season, carried out by the Departmental Federation of Côtes d'Armor Hunters in collaboration with the volunteers of the National Bécassiers Club of the 22.

This study of the Côtes d'Armor is particularly important for the Woodcock, because it concerns a department of the Brittany region which is among the very first in France for frequentation, hunting and collection of this bird.

Return of Sample books

With a return rate of books of 87.5% for several years, the Departmental Federation of Côtes d'Armor manages to respect the terms of the ministerial decree of 05/31/2011.

In particular article 7 paragraph III of article R 425-20 of the environment code, which includes in particular  :

1- The quantification of woodcock removals.

2- The average harvest and statistical distribution by hunter.

3- The distribution of the staggering of removals during the hunting season.

It is necessary to recall these provisions because in La Mordorée of April 2017 page 27, Yves Ferrand (Bécasse Oncfs network) affirmed that the Bécasse sampling book was not primarily intended to know the estimate of the samples.

The agreement between the Federation of Côtes d'Armor and the members of the CNB22, shows the Presidents of the departmental federations of hunters, that it is possible to respect the provisions of the ministerial decree of 05/31/2011, (c ' is to say the law) to better know the Woodcock in order to protect it and to perpetuate the practice of its hunting with dogs.

If the ministerial decree of 05/31/2011 had been respected by all the departments, we would now know the level of withdrawals. This would have enabled us to compare it with the estimate of samples taken by Oncfs for the 2013/2014 season, and to avoid concerns and controversies (quite legitimate) about their fall compared to the 1998/1999 season.

Average harvest and statistical distribution by hunter

The study on the distribution of samples shows that for the Côtes d'Armor *, a very representative department, the average harvest per hunter who has taken is 6.3 birds, and especially that only 85 hunters take 26 to 30, out of the 3842 who take a woodcock and more  .

This means that around 20 hunters (0.50% of the 3,842 pre-levants) take thirty  !

This is confirmation that less than 0.50 French hunters have the potential to harvest more than 30 woodcock per year (Sources Oncfs 0.36%, 2016/2017 season report in Wildlife September 2018 page 18.

We are not surprised because for having worked on the two available studies.

Pma Bretagne assessment of the 4 Breton departments (2009/2010 season).

Estimate of woodcock removals from the 5 Aquitaine departments 2011/2012 we had already found less than 1%  ; while Y Ferrand was still wondering about the veracity of our value (Mordorée April 2017 page 27)

Effectiveness of the National PMA 30 Woodcock per season

Realistic assumption. Let's say these twenty hunters all had the potential to harvest forty. The number of Woodcock spared thanks to PMA 30 would be 10 Woodcock multiplied by 20 hunters = 200 Woodcock  .

200 Woodcock spared in the Côtes d'Armor, that's only less than 3,000 Woodcock spared per season in France (thanks to the PMA of 30)  !

Evolution of Côtes d'Armor Samples in 33 years

Surveys on the estimation of Woodcock removals in the Côtes d'Armor gave ..

1983/1984  : 37,800 Oncfs study

1998/1999  : 46,600 Oncfs study

2016/2017  : 32,564 estimated Bdc22 (24,227 study of Bdc 22-Cnb 22 notebooks).

The drop is significant without the methodology used being the only cause ...

The Côtes d'Armor, its Federation, the local CNB give a good image of hunting and hunters  . For the other departments, it is an example ... to be followed.

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            Philippe Vignac                              Franck Ricaud

November 2018

* Sources FDC 22.

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