A bird taken in Gers carries a coloured, numbered ring? That number is enough to trace it back to its release, whether you hunt near Auch or in any of the department's 458 municipalities. 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 32 belongs to the Occitania region; its prefecture is Auch.
Ring tracking in Gers
The Gers hunters' federation (FDC 32) is not among the federations registered on RingFollow. Reporting remains possible and useful: the recovery is recorded, then reviewed by a federation; GIBIS plays no part in the validation. The ring number leads back to the original release: if the federation of the department where it took place is registered, it validates; if not, the report waits, filed under department 32.
Reporting a ring found in Gers
- Photograph the ring, on the leg or once removed; if the number runs all the way round, take several shots.
- Choose the municipality where the bird was taken, from the 458 in Gers: it locates the recovery but is never published.
- 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.
Land and population
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 89% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 9%. The rest is mostly artificial surfaces (2%). With 192,645 inhabitants (INSEE, 2022 population count) on about 6,300 km², the density is roughly 31 inhabitants per km²; the department has 458 municipalities. With the share of agricultural areas at 89%, the department is in the top five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Its arrondissements are administered from Auch (prefecture), Condom and Mirande.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
The regional picture
Besides Gers, the Occitania region comprises Aude, Tarn, Ariège, Aveyron, Hérault, Lot, Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard, Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarn-et-Garonne and Lozère. None of the 13 departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the regional overview). At 9%, the share of forests and semi-natural areas here is the lowest among the 13 departments of the Occitania region.
From report to validation
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. Without a match, the report stays on file for Gers, unpublished, until a federation can validate it. Reports are kept for five hunting seasons after the recovery, then retained only in anonymised form for statistics (see the privacy policy).
What a reported ring is for
The recovery rate is the number of validated rings divided by the number of birds released. It only exists if hunters report, in Gers as elsewhere. For an example, see the review of the 2025 pheasant-poult operation (Infochasse mag' no. 72, in French).
RingFollow figures for Gers
- No validated recovery has been located in Gers on RingFollow so far.
- No report linked to the department is awaiting validation.
- For comparison, all of France: 3,592 ringed birds in 85 releases and 16 validated recoveries (5 participating federations); details on the Statistics page.
Further reading
RingFollow tracks rings; breeding, species and restocking are covered on gibis.fr: game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges.
Gers and its neighbours
Six departments border it: Tarn-et-Garonne to the north-east, Haute-Garonne to the south-east, Landes to the west, Pyrénées-Atlantiques to the south-west, Hautes-Pyrénées to the south and Lot-et-Garonne to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 31% (Landes) to 78% (Tarn-et-Garonne), against 89% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Haute-Loire, about 310 km to the north-east (centre to centre).
Game-bird rings: common questions
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.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Gers?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Do I have to give my name to report a ring in Gers?
No. Name, phone and e-mail are optional; an e-mail address only gets you an acknowledgement. Only the validating federation sees what you leave.
Why are there no statistics for Gers?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Gers hunters' federation (FDC 32) does not use RingFollow at present.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Gers?
On bagues.gibis.fr, from a phone: a photo of the ring, the species and the municipality where the bird was taken are enough. No account is needed.
For federations
A registered federation validates the recoveries in its own department and can export its data. Full list: Federations; contact: gibis@gibis.fr.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).