This page is for anyone who hunts in Charente-Maritime and finds a ring on a pheasant or partridge: where to report it, who validates it, and what is known about the department. Reports are useful to the ACCAs (approved communal hunting associations) and federations that organise releases; the public only ever sees totals per department. On the administrative map, department 17 belongs to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region; its prefecture is La Rochelle.
Who validates recoveries in Charente-Maritime?
The Charente-Maritime hunters' federation (FDC 17) is not among the federations registered on RingFollow. Nothing changes for the hunter: the report is made the same way, and federations, not GIBIS, validate recoveries. If the bird comes from a release in a department whose federation is registered, that federation validates the recovery; otherwise the report stays on file for Charente-Maritime.
Reporting in four steps
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Enter the municipality, La Rochelle or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- If the bird carries a wing tag rather than a leg ring, say so at the same step, together with the species.
- Send: with no signal, the report goes out on its own as soon as coverage returns.
Recoveries and reports in Charente-Maritime
- The count of validated recoveries in Charente-Maritime still stands at zero.
- The validation queue for Charente-Maritime is empty.
- For comparison, all of France: 3,592 ringed birds in 85 releases and 16 validated recoveries (5 participating federations); details on the Statistics page.
What a reported ring is for
Every recovery reported gives a date, a distance and a species. Added together, they give an operation's recovery rate and how far the birds disperse after release: enough to adjust future releases in Charente-Maritime.
From report to validation
The report is recorded as soon as it arrives, with the photo and the municipality given. Next comes the matching: does the ring belong to a recorded release? If so, and if that department's federation is registered, it reviews the recovery. Without a match, the report stays on file for Charente-Maritime, unpublished, until a federation can validate it. The public only sees totals per department; points on the national map are rounded to about 1 km.
Charente-Maritime in figures
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 76% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 16%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (6%) and wetlands (2%). INSEE counts 462 municipalities and 672,279 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 7,050 km². Its arrondissements are administered from La Rochelle (prefecture), Jonzac, Rochefort, Saint-Jean-d'Angély and Saintes.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Neighbouring departments
Five departments border it: Charente to the east, Deux-Sèvres to the north, Vendée to the north-west, Gironde to the south and Dordogne to the south-east. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Pays de la Loire. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 37% (Gironde) to 88% (Deux-Sèvres), against 76% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Haute-Loire, about 355 km to the east (centre to centre).
The breeding side: gibis.fr
The ringed birds tracked here come from the GIBIS game farm in Chatte (Isère). For the pheasant strain, see PUR CHASSE® pheasants; for restocking in general, restocking game birds.
The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and RingFollow
Besides Charente-Maritime, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region comprises Haute-Vienne, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Gironde, Deux-Sèvres, Landes, Vienne, Creuse, Corrèze, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Charente. None of the 12 departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the regional overview).
Frequently asked questions
Why are there no statistics for Charente-Maritime?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Charente-Maritime hunters' federation (FDC 17) does not use RingFollow at present.
Will my name appear on the Charente-Maritime page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
Can I report a ring without a mobile signal in Charente-Maritime?
Yes. The form keeps the report on the phone and sends it as soon as coverage returns, wherever you are in Charente-Maritime.
What if the ring number is illegible?
Take several well-lit photos from different angles, then correct the suggested number if needed. The photos stay attached to the report for the validating federation.
Who validates a recovery reported in Charente-Maritime?
A hunters' federation: the one for the department where the bird was originally released, if it is registered on RingFollow. The Charente-Maritime hunters' federation (FDC 17) does not use RingFollow at present, and GIBIS never validates.
For federations
The situation of every federation is on the Federations page. A federation that would like to track its recoveries can write to gibis@gibis.fr.
Few figures for Charente-Maritime so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).