This page is for anyone who hunts in Loir-et-Cher and finds a ring on a pheasant or partridge: where to report it, who validates it, and what is known about the department. The page is also meant for the ACCAs, France's approved communal hunting associations, and for the Loir-et-Cher hunters' federation (FDC 41): it shows what is published and what never is. Part of the Centre-Val de Loire region, which has six departments, the department is administered from Blois.
Validating recoveries in Loir-et-Cher
For department 41, no federation uses RingFollow at present. A ring found in Loir-et-Cher can still be reported: the report is recorded, and it will be validated by a federation, never by GIBIS. 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 Loir-et-Cher.
Reporting in four steps
- 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.
- Pick the species from the list (red-legged partridge, grey partridge, pheasant and hare); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send the report; name, phone and e-mail are optional, but an e-mail address gets you an acknowledgement.
One ring, one data point
ACCAs and federations fund releases; rings are the only way to know what they yield in the field. Consolidated figures are public on the Statistics page, by department.
Key facts about Loir-et-Cher
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 62% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 33%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (4%) and water bodies (1%). About 6,420 km², 267 municipalities and 328,543 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. The share of agricultural areas (62%) is lower here than in any of its six neighbours. Besides Blois, the prefecture, the department has two sub-prefectures: Romorantin-Lanthenay and Vendôme.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Recoveries and reports in Loir-et-Cher
- So far, RingFollow has no validated recovery taken in Loir-et-Cher.
- The validation queue for Loir-et-Cher 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.
Further reading
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.
Within the Centre-Val de Loire region
The other departments of the region are Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, Cher, Indre and Indre-et-Loire. None of the six departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region). At 33%, the share of forests and semi-natural areas here is the highest among the six departments of the Centre-Val de Loire region.
Loir-et-Cher and its neighbours
Six departments border it: Indre-et-Loire to the south-west, Sarthe to the north-west, Loiret to the north-east, Indre to the south, Cher to the south-east and Eure-et-Loir to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Pays de la Loire. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 66% (Loiret) to 84% (Eure-et-Loir), against 62% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). The nearest department whose federation tracks its rings on RingFollow is Haute-Loire, about 330 km to the south-east as the crow flies between department centres. Next comes Ain (about 340 km).
What happens to the report
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 Loir-et-Cher, 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.
Game-bird rings: common questions
Will my name appear on the Loir-et-Cher page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Loir-et-Cher?
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 330 km away between department centres.
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.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Loir-et-Cher?
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.
Registering a federation
Hunter or ACCA official in Loir-et-Cher? You can raise it with your federation. All federations and their situation: Federations.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).