Current studies on wild partridge management in England.

Abstract

The research that is discussed here started in the late summer of 1968 and seeks a quantifiable explanation for the recent changes in the distribution and productivity of the grey partridge (Perdix perdix). The aim, of course, is to restore wild partridge populations wherever this is feasible, having considered trends in modern agricultural techniques and requirements in contemporary game management.

A long-term decrease began over most of the British Isles about 1914 and has continued to the present day but, on those estates which could continue their traditional methods of partridge management (Potts, 1970a, 1 971b and unpublished), the decline did not occur until the mid-1950's.

On the latter areas there was a marked reduction in the average chick survival over the period 1952-1963 which has accelerated the long-term decline and drastically reduced the size of the « shootable surplus » throughout Britain. Similar changes have occurred, but more recently, in France (Birkan 1971 ; Gindre et Allion 1971), Denmark (Strandgaard 1968), and Germany (Madel 1971 ) ; but apparently not in Finland (Pulliainen 1968) or Poland (Olech 1971). This review written in early 1974.