Coloured ring on the leg, number clearly legible: if you have recovered a farm-reared bird in Loire, here is where to report it and what happens to the information. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. Part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which has 12 departments, the department is administered from Saint-Étienne.
The federation and RingFollow
The Loire hunters' federation (FDC 42) is not among the federations registered on RingFollow. A ring found in Loire 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 Loire.
Reporting a ring found in Loire
- Start with a sharp photo of the ring: the number is read automatically, and you check it.
- Say where the bird was taken: the municipality is used for validation and never appears in public.
- Pick the species from the list (hare, pheasant, red-legged partridge and grey partridge); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send it. For 24 hours you can still remove or add a photo.
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and RingFollow
Besides Loire, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region comprises Isère, Ain, Cantal, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, Rhône, Haute-Loire, Ardèche and Drôme. Three of the 12 departments in the region have their federation on RingFollow: Ain, Isère and Haute-Loire (see the Federations page).
Recoveries and reports in Loire
- The count of validated recoveries in Loire still stands at zero.
- 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.
Loire in figures
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 61% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 30%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (8%) and water bodies (1%). About 4,800 km², 320 municipalities and 774,133 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. Besides Saint-Étienne, the prefecture, the department has two sub-prefectures: Montbrison and Roanne.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
What happens to the report
Once sent, the report is kept; if you left an e-mail address, an acknowledgement follows. 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 Loire, 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).
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 Loire.
The breeding side: gibis.fr
Species, delivery and release planning are a matter for the breeder: see game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges on gibis.fr.
Loire and its neighbours
Its neighbours are Saône-et-Loire to the north, Ardèche to the south, Puy-de-Dôme to the west, Rhône to the north-east, Isère to the south-east, Allier to the north-west and Haute-Loire to the south-west. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 27% (Ardèche) to 79% (Allier), against 61% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). Of these, Isère and Haute-Loire track their rings on RingFollow.
- Allier (03)
- Ardèche (07)
- Isère (38) on RingFollow
- Haute-Loire (43) on RingFollow
- Puy-de-Dôme (63)
- Rhône (69)
- Saône-et-Loire (71)
Your questions about Loire
Which neighbouring departments track their rings on RingFollow?
Isère and Haute-Loire. Each has its own page on this site.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Loire?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Loire, 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 Loire 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.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Loire?
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
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 Loire so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).