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Differences in mortality rates, dispersal distances and breeding success of commercially reared and wild grey partridges in the Czech agricultural landscape

European Journal of Wildlife Research volume 59, pages 147–158 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of releasing commercially reared individuals of the grey partridge (Perdix perdix) as a method for species recovery. This study compares the mortality risk of grey partridges depending on origin, sex and body condition, controlling for age, infection risk and release method. In total, 110 locally caught wild individuals and 75 commercially reared game-farm partridges were released and radio tracked within the same study area in the Czech Republic between 2009 and 2011. To exclude a possible effect of age on survival, only individuals in the second calendar year of life were chosen for the analysis. Commercially reared partridges had significantly higher mortality risk than wild ones. None of the commercially reared birds survived in the wild until the end of the nesting period, and none produced a fledged brood. Females from game farms showed significantly better survival than males and preferred to mate with wild males, whereas wild females avoided mating with commercially reared males. Predation was the main cause of mortality, and proportion of birds killed by raptors and mammals did not differ between wild and commercially reared birds. These results highlight the uselessness of releasing adult commercially reared partridges in an effort to establish viable populations of this species in the wild and stress the need for a change from intensive rearing methods aimed predominantly at quantity towards a more conservation breeding-oriented approach aimed at quality.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation within the project Components of sexual selection in the monogamous grey partridge (GA206/08/1281). We thank our colleagues Růžičková O., Černý M., Černý P., Holomek S., Adámková M., Albrecht T. and others for field assistance and all the reviewers for their useful comments. We are very grateful to the members of Hunting Club Borovina Vidonín, especially Holý J., Jobánek P. and Jobánková P. for providing their facilities. We thank all the reviewers for useful comments which improved the text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    D. Rymešová

  2. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 1176, 165 21, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    D. Rymešová & M. Šálek

  3. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    O. Tomášek

  4. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    O. Tomášek

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  1. D. Rymešová
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Rymešová, D., Tomášek, O. & Šálek, M. Differences in mortality rates, dispersal distances and breeding success of commercially reared and wild grey partridges in the Czech agricultural landscape. Eur J Wildl Res 59, 147–158 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-012-0659-6

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