Bird Atlas reveals 94% decline in partridges
They used to be more common than pheasants. But a new project reveals the shocking decline in the grey partridge population, as Philip Bowern reports
COUNTRYMEN of a certain age will tell you it was a novelty to see a pheasant when out and about, but coveys of grey partridges – the traditional English partridge – were everywhere.
Today, while reared and released pheasants are commonplace and the red-legged or French partridge is a stalwart of many game shooting estates, the population of the European grey partridge has dropped by 94% since 1980.
The news comes in a remarkable new bird atlas, The European Breeding Bird Atlas – EBBA2, one of the most ambitious biodiversity mapping projects ever undertaken.
It documents changes in breeding distribution of all European bird species and confirms that this key species has suffered one of the steepest declines of all farmland bird species.
Dr Francis Buner, senior conservation scientist at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), who co-authored the grey partridge species account in the EBBA2, said: “The dramatic decline of the grey partridge across its entire Western European range should act as a wake-up call to us all.
“Europe’s farmland biodiversity is under severe threat with unprecedented declines and even complete losses to wildlife in all corners of the EU and the UK.
“Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) clearly failed to take care of the fundamental entity that allows for a healthy life on our planet – biodiversity. Following Brexit, the UK now has a chance in a lifetime to move on from the unsustainable policy regulations imposed by the CAP and implement its own green policies to undo the damage before it will be too late”.
The stark facts of the grey partridge’s decline are well-known to the GWCT, which has been involved in charting the fate of the species through its Partridge Count Scheme since 1933.
Considered a ‘barometer of the countryside’, the grey partridge is an indicator of arable farmland eco-system
‘Europe’s CAP failed biodiversity. Following Brexit the UK has the chance of a lifetime’ DR FRANCIS BUNER, GWCT
health and biodiversity: where grey partridges thrive, other wildlife will follow.
Their decline is due, says Francis, “to a combination of factors including intensified agriculture, especially the shift from small-scale mixed farming to large-scale winter cropping, increases in pesticide use reducing insect food for partridge chicks and increased predation because of a reduction in predator control.”
GWCT scientists believe that the future of the grey partridge lies in the hands of individuals on the ground through the management measures they can implement.
The Trust provides evidencebased guidance to land managers on management measures for conserving the grey partridge. The Partridge Count Scheme enlists the voluntary help of farmers, gamekeepers and landowners to collect information on the annual abundance and breeding success of grey partridges across the UK.
Participation in the count scheme also helps land managers see the effects of their conservation efforts.
The GWCT is also the lead partner in the pioneering cross-border PARTRIDGE project, working with 12 organisations in countries across Europe. The project uses ten demonstration sites, including four in the UK, to show land managers and policymakers how farmland biodiversity can be reversed, using the grey partridge as the flagship species to measure success.
Its aim is to influence agri-environment policy and enthuse landowners and managers to conserve farmland wildlife.
The PARTRIDGE project also recently published Farming with Nature, a practical guide based on scientific research, to how conservation efforts aimed at the grey partridge can benefit farmland biodiversity more generally.
Gamekeepers and farmers in the South West are heavily engaged in working to restore great partridge numbers through a combination of improved habitat and, where chicks and eggs are at risk, controlling the predators that prey on these groundnesting birds.
In Cornwall Charlie Watson Smyth, whose farms at Tregirls on the Prideaux-Brune Estate near Padstow, has been a champion of bringing back the grey partridge.
In 2018, at the Royal Cornwall Show Mr Watson Smyth highlighted research by the GWCT which showed that, with the right habitat management and a careful reintroduction of birds and their protection during the breeding season from predation, populations can be restored.