A bird taken in Mayenne carries a coloured, numbered ring? That number is enough to trace it back to its release, whether you hunt near Laval or in any of the department's 240 municipalities. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. Mayenne is one of the five departments of the Pays de la Loire region, with Laval as its prefecture.
Validating recoveries in Mayenne
For department 53, no federation uses RingFollow at present. 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 Mayenne.
Reporting in four steps
- 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.
- If the bird carries a wing tag rather than a leg ring, say so at the same step, together with the species.
- Send the report; name, phone and e-mail are optional, but an e-mail address gets you an acknowledgement.
Why report a recovery
The recovery rate is the number of validated rings divided by the number of birds released. It only exists if hunters report, in Mayenne as elsewhere. For an example, see the review of the 2025 pheasant-poult operation (Infochasse mag' no. 72, in French).
The department at a glance
Land cover in 2018 (CORINE Land Cover): agricultural areas lead with 90%, followed by forests and semi-natural areas (6%). The rest is mostly artificial surfaces (4%). With 305,468 inhabitants (INSEE, 2022 population count) on about 5,210 km², the density is roughly 59 inhabitants per km²; the department has 240 municipalities. With the share of agricultural areas at 90%, the department is in the top five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Besides Laval, the prefecture, the department has two sub-prefectures: Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne and Mayenne.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
After you send it
The report is recorded as soon as it arrives, with the photo and the municipality given. 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. If no release matches, the report is kept under department 53 and stays out of the public totals. No hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named: only totals per department and points rounded to about 1 km.
What the rings say in Mayenne
- No validated recovery has been located in Mayenne on RingFollow so far.
- The validation queue for Mayenne is empty.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
Further reading
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.
Across the borders
Five departments border it: Sarthe to the east, Orne to the north-east, Maine-et-Loire to the south, Manche to the north-west and Ille-et-Vilaine to the west. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Brittany and Normandy. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 78% (Sarthe) to 90% (Manche), against 90% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
The regional picture
Besides Mayenne, the Pays de la Loire region comprises Maine-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Vendée and Sarthe. None of the five departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). The share of artificial surfaces (4%) is lower here than in any other department of the Pays de la Loire region.
Your questions about Mayenne
Does GIBIS validate reports from Mayenne?
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 Mayenne?
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 recognise a Gibis ring found in Mayenne?
A coloured, numbered leg ring, or a numbered coloured plastic wing tag, with no address. A ring engraved with an address belongs to another scheme: the guide explains where to report it.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Mayenne?
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.
Why are there no statistics for Mayenne?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Mayenne hunters' federation (FDC 53) does not use RingFollow at present.
A federation that would like to track its rings
A registered federation validates the recoveries in its own department and can export its data. Full list: Federations; contact: gibis@gibis.fr.
Few figures for Mayenne so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).