Gestión cinegética de la cabra montés en la provincia de Granada: cupos de capturas y evolución poblacional

Abstract

The populations of Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica Schinz, 1838) settled in the mountain ranges of the Iberian Peninsula have been intensively studied, but there are scarce data of populations outside these areas or studies that quantify the hunting management. In the present study, we analyzed: 1) the hunting quotas of all hunting reserves of Granada province and 2) the management strategy of 96 out of them with presence of the species. During the 2005-2016 period, we found a significant increase in the number of hunted ibex in the 415 hunting reserves analyzed (rs = 0.87, P <0.001) that ranged from 174 individuals in 2005 to 911 in 2016. In hunting reserves with exhaustive hunting control (n = 96), we verified that 76.5% of the quota of authorized males and 60.2% of females were completed, and the obligation to hunt females was fulfilled in 89.5% on them. The annual growth rate of ibex population was 9.2%, which was higher in recent colonization territories than in the traditionally occupied territories, increasing significantly from 1.5 individuals/km2 in 2005 to 5.0 individuals/km2 in 2018 (rs= 0.86, P= 0.00006; N= 80). The population grew continuously until 2014, when a stability period began (average = 5.2 ± 0.38 individuals/km2; period 2014-2018) after reach the 900 individuals/ season hunted in the province. In spite of this data, the population of Iberian ibex in the hunting reserves exceeding the 25,000 individuals in 2018.