A bird taken in Jura carries a coloured, numbered ring? That number is enough to trace it back to its release, whether you hunt near Lons-le-Saunier or in any of the department's 492 municipalities. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. On the administrative map, department 39 belongs to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region; its prefecture is Lons-le-Saunier.
Ring tracking in Jura
For department 39, no federation uses RingFollow at present. Nothing changes for the hunter: the report is made the same way, and federations, not GIBIS, validate recoveries. 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 39.
From photo to report
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Say where the bird was taken: the municipality is used for validation and never appears in public.
- State the species, red-legged partridge or pheasant for example, and if you know them, the sex and circumstances of the recovery.
- Send: with no signal, the report goes out on its own as soon as coverage returns.
What the rings say in Jura
- The count of validated recoveries in Jura still stands at zero.
- The validation queue for Jura is empty.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
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 Jura.
After you send it
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. If no release matches, the report is kept under department 39 and stays out of the public totals. The public only sees totals per department; points on the national map are rounded to about 1 km.
Jura in figures
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts forests and semi-natural areas at 50% of the area and agricultural areas at 45%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (4%) and water bodies (1%). About 5,050 km², 492 municipalities and 257,973 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. At 45%, the share of agricultural areas here is the lowest among the department and its five neighbours. Its arrondissements are administered from Lons-le-Saunier (prefecture), Dole and Saint-Claude.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Breeding and restocking
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.
Around Jura
Five departments border it: Doubs to the north-east, Ain to the south, Haute-Saône to the north, Côte-d'Or to the north-west and Saône-et-Loire to the west. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Among its neighbours, the share of forests and semi-natural areas ranges from 23% (Saône-et-Loire) to 45% (Doubs), against 50% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). Of these, Ain tracks its rings on RingFollow.
The Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and RingFollow
Besides Jura, the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region comprises Nièvre, Côte-d'Or, Yonne, Saône-et-Loire, Territoire de Belfort, Doubs and Haute-Saône. None of the eight departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region). At 50%, the share of forests and semi-natural areas here is the highest among the eight departments of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
Game-bird rings: common questions
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Jura, 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.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Jura?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Why are there no statistics for Jura?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Jura hunters' federation (FDC 39) does not use RingFollow at present.
How long is a report from Jura 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.
Can I report a ring without a mobile signal in Jura?
Yes. The form keeps the report on the phone and sends it as soon as coverage returns, wherever you are in Jura.
Registering a federation
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.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).