Anthropic and natural factors drive variation of survival in the red-legged partridge in southern France

Understanding demographical processes underlying abundance and population size fluctuations is critical to species management. Knowing key parameters and responses to observed changes can reduce the number of realistic management scenarios. In hunted species, survival might be the targeted parameter for effective plans. The red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa is a native species in Mediterranean countries. The species is hunted, especially in France where some release plans are implemented. However, survival estimates are scarce there and most studies were conducted in Spain. Here, we took advantage of a radio-tracking experiment in southern France (200 birds surveyed) to estimate monthly and annual survival rates of both wild and released red-legged partridge and to investigate the temporal, spatial and individual variations in survival. We found very high annual survival rate in our island site (0.70) and low survival elsewhere (range: 0.25–0.29). We showed that age and sex were a significant source of ...