This page is for anyone who hunts in Maine-et-Loire 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 Maine-et-Loire hunters' federation (FDC 49): it shows what is published and what never is. On the administrative map, department 49 belongs to the Pays de la Loire region; its prefecture is Angers.
Who validates recoveries in Maine-et-Loire?
The Maine-et-Loire hunters' federation (FDC 49) 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. 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 Maine-et-Loire.
Reporting a ring found in Maine-et-Loire
- 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, hare, pheasant and grey partridge); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send the report; name, phone and e-mail are optional, but an e-mail address gets you an acknowledgement.
What a reported ring is for
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.
RingFollow figures for Maine-et-Loire
- So far, RingFollow has no validated recovery taken in Maine-et-Loire.
- The validation queue for Maine-et-Loire is empty.
- 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 Sarthe, Mayenne, Loire-Atlantique and Vendée. None of the five departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page).
What next?
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 49 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.
The breeding side: gibis.fr
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.
Land and population
Land cover in 2018 (CORINE Land Cover): agricultural areas lead with 81%, followed by forests and semi-natural areas (11%). The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (6%) and water bodies (1%). INSEE counts 176 municipalities and 833,776 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 7,170 km². The number of municipalities (176) is lower here than in any of its eight neighbours. Besides Angers, the prefecture, the department has three sub-prefectures: Cholet, Saumur and Segré-en-Anjou Bleu.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Neighbouring departments
Eight departments border it: Loire-Atlantique to the west, Sarthe to the north-east, Ille-et-Vilaine to the north-west, Vienne to the south-east, Vendée to the south-west, Indre-et-Loire to the east, Deux-Sèvres to the south and Mayenne to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 68% (Indre-et-Loire) to 90% (Mayenne), against 81% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
Game-bird rings: common questions
Does GIBIS validate reports from Maine-et-Loire?
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 neighbours, and no federation within 400 km. The full list is on the Federations page.
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.
Do I have to give my name to report a ring in Maine-et-Loire?
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.
How do I report a ringed partridge taken in Maine-et-Loire?
Just as for a pheasant: photo of the ring, number checked, species “red-legged partridge” or “grey partridge”, and the municipality. Nothing differs in Maine-et-Loire.
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).