A ringed partridge or pheasant recovered in Creuse only tells its story if the ring number is reported, and that takes a minute. The page is also meant for the ACCAs, France's approved communal hunting associations, and for the Creuse hunters' federation (FDC 23): it shows what is published and what never is. Part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which has 12 departments, the department is administered from Guéret.
Ring tracking in Creuse
For department 23, no federation uses RingFollow at present. Reporting remains possible and useful: the recovery is recorded, then reviewed by a federation; GIBIS plays no part in the validation. 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 Creuse.
Reporting a ring found in Creuse
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Enter the municipality, Guéret or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- Pick the species from the list (hare, grey partridge, red-legged partridge and pheasant); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send: with no signal, the report goes out on its own as soon as coverage returns.
Creuse in figures
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 67% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 31%. The rest is mostly artificial surfaces (1%). INSEE counts 255 municipalities and 115,527 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 5,600 km². With the share of artificial surfaces at 1%, the department is in the bottom five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Besides Guéret, the prefecture, the department has one sub-prefecture: Aubusson.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
What next?
Once sent, the report is kept; if you left an e-mail address, an acknowledgement follows. The ring number is then matched against known releases; if one took place in a department whose federation is registered, that federation validates the recovery. If no release matches, the report is kept under department 23 and stays out of the public totals. No hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named: only totals per department and points rounded to about 1 km.
Recoveries and reports in Creuse
- The count of validated recoveries in Creuse still stands at zero.
- No report linked to the department is awaiting validation.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
The regional picture
The other departments of the region are Dordogne, Landes, Corrèze, Charente, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Lot-et-Garonne, Haute-Vienne, Vienne, Deux-Sèvres, Gironde and Charente-Maritime. None of the 12 departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region). At about 21 inhabitants per km², population density here is the lowest among the 12 departments of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Creuse and its neighbours
Six departments border it: Indre to the north-west, Cher to the north, Haute-Vienne to the west, Puy-de-Dôme to the south-east, Corrèze to the south and Allier to the east. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Centre-Val de Loire. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 49% (Corrèze) to 80% (Indre), against 67% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Haute-Loire, about 175 km to the south-east (centre to centre). Next come Ain (about 255 km) and Isère (about 290 km).
The breeding side: gibis.fr
RingFollow tracks rings; breeding, species and restocking are covered on gibis.fr: game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges.
Why report a recovery
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 Creuse.
Frequently asked questions
Does GIBIS validate reports from Creuse?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Which neighbouring departments track their rings on RingFollow?
None of its direct neighbours. The nearest registered federation is in Haute-Loire, about 175 km away between department centres.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Creuse, be reported here?
No. RingFollow only covers game-farm rings, which carry no address. Rings from scientific ringing schemes are reported to those schemes; this site's guide tells you more.
How long is a report from Creuse kept?
Five hunting seasons, the duration of the restocking study. After that it is kept only in anonymised form, without contact details or licence number.
How do I report a ringed partridge taken in Creuse?
Just as for a pheasant: photo of the ring, number checked, species “red-legged partridge” or “grey partridge”, and the municipality. Nothing differs in Creuse.
Registering a federation
Hunter or ACCA official in Creuse? You can raise it with your federation. All federations and their situation: Federations.
Few figures for Creuse so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).