This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Hunting is not the main reason bird populations are declining across Europe, according to new research from University College Dublin in collaboration with the Spanish research institute Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC). Examining population trends for 256 bird species across nine European countries, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, researchers found no statistically significant association between whether a species could legally be hunted and its likelihood of being in decline.
The study, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, tracked national bird population trends over two decades alongside factors including legal hunting status, conservation protection, nesting strategy, agricultural habitat and farming intensity. "Our findings suggest that hunting-related indicators alone do not explain broad-scale patterns of bird population decline across Europe," said associate professor Barry J. McMahon of the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.
"This is an important distinction because it does not mean hunting has no effect on individual species or populations. Rather, it shows that the relationship is more complex than simply whether a species is legally huntable," pointed out Dr. Eva de la Peña, a postdoctoral researcher and study author.
The researchers assessed species in Spain, France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK as either declining or not declining. They examined whether legal huntability was associated with those trends while accounting for other ecological and policy-related factors. The analysis found no statistically significant association between national-level huntability and population decline.
A second analysis examined huntable species in six countries, using average annual harvest levels as a broad measure of hunting pressure. It also found no significant relationship between harvest levels and population decline. In wildlife management, harvest levels refer to the specific percentage of animals permitted to be removed from a population through hunting to maintain ecological balance.
The study identified other factors associated with population trends. Birds receiving special conservation protection under Annex I of the EU Birds Directive were associated with a lower probability of population decline, while ground-nesting birds had a higher probability of decline. The researchers stressed that national-level measures of huntability and harvest did not capture differences in local hunting pressure, habitat conditions or conservation management.
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