This page is for anyone who hunts in Nièvre 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 Nièvre hunters' federation (FDC 58): it shows what is published and what never is. Part of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, which has eight departments, the department is administered from Nevers.
Ring tracking in Nièvre
The Nièvre hunters' federation (FDC 58) does not use 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 58.
Found a ring: what to do
- 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 (hare, grey partridge, red-legged partridge and pheasant); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send it. For 24 hours you can still remove or add a photo.
Key facts about Nièvre
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 63% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 34%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (2%) and water bodies (1%). About 6,870 km², 309 municipalities and 201,417 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. The share of artificial surfaces (2%) is lower here than in any of its six neighbours. Besides Nevers, the prefecture, the department has three sub-prefectures: Château-Chinon (Ville), Clamecy and Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
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.
After you send it
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 Without a match, the report stays on file for Nièvre, unpublished, until a federation can validate it. No hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named: only totals per department and points rounded to about 1 km.
Nièvre and its neighbours
Six departments border it: Yonne to the north, Saône-et-Loire to the south-east, Cher to the west, Allier to the south, Loiret to the north-west and Côte-d'Or to the east. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Centre-Val de Loire. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 59% (Côte-d'Or) to 79% (Allier), against 63% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Ain, about 180 km to the south-east (centre to centre). Next come Haute-Loire (about 220 km) and Isère (about 260 km).
Why report a recovery
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.
The Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and RingFollow
Besides Nièvre, the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region comprises Jura, Territoire de Belfort, Haute-Saône, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Doubs and Yonne. None of the eight departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). Population density (about 29 inhabitants per km²) is lower here than in any other department of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
Recoveries and reports in Nièvre
- So far, RingFollow has no validated recovery taken in Nièvre.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there no statistics for Nièvre?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Nièvre hunters' federation (FDC 58) does not use RingFollow at present.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Nièvre?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Will my name appear on the Nièvre page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Nièvre?
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.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Nièvre, 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.
A federation that would like to track its rings
Hunter or ACCA official in Nièvre? 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).