Effectiveness of hunting regulations for the conservation of a globally-threatened species: The case of the European turtle-dove in Spain

Abstract

Wildlife management regulations for exploited species often aim to manipulate harvest levels in order to avoid unsustainable levels of exploitation. For such regulations to be effective the size of the harvest needs to respond to changes in those regulatory measures. The European turtle-dove is a widespread migratory quarry species of conservation concern for which recent levels of hunting in Western Europe are considered unsustainable. We describe temporal and spatial variation in the hunting of this species across Spain, the country with the largest harvest in Europe, after reducing biases inherent in the official Government statistics. We also assess whether changes in hunting policy regulations (the number of permitted hunting days, the start date of the hunting season and daily quotas imposed on hunters) have been effective in limiting the numbers of turtle doves harvested. Official national government harvest statistics under-estimated harvest reported by hunters by an average of 38% during 2007–2009 due to information gaps and underreporting, but this problem subsequently declined and was negligible by 2017. The density of shot birds was highest in the southwest of the country. None of the three regulatory measures had any detectable impact on reported provincial harvest, indicating that the main policy mechanisms employed by the Spanish hunting authorities to manage hunting have been ineffective. Our findings highlight the continued need of accurate measures of harvest and of developing and deploying effective means of managing the harvest of quarry species, especially those with unfavorable conservation status.