This page is for anyone who hunts in Pyrénées-Atlantiques and finds a ring on a pheasant or partridge: where to report it, who validates it, and what is known about the department. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. Pyrénées-Atlantiques is one of the 12 departments of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, with Pau as its prefecture.
Validating recoveries in Pyrénées-Atlantiques
The Pyrénées-Atlantiques hunters' federation (FDC 64) does not use RingFollow at present. A ring found in Pyrénées-Atlantiques can still be reported: the report is recorded, and it will be validated by a federation, never by GIBIS. 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 64.
Found a ring: what to do
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Choose the municipality where the bird was taken, from the 545 in Pyrénées-Atlantiques: it locates the recovery but is never published.
- State the species, hare or red-legged partridge for example, and if you know them, the sex and circumstances of the recovery.
- Send the report; name, phone and e-mail are optional, but an e-mail address gets you an acknowledgement.
Key facts about Pyrénées-Atlantiques
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 50% of the area and forests and semi-natural areas at 45%. The rest is mostly artificial surfaces (5%). INSEE counts 545 municipalities and 706,564 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 7,680 km². The share of artificial surfaces (5%) is higher here than in any of its three neighbours. Its arrondissements are administered from Pau (prefecture), Bayonne and Oloron-Sainte-Marie.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
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 Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Neighbouring departments
Three departments border it: Gers to the north-east, Landes to the north and Hautes-Pyrénées to the east. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Occitania. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 31% (Landes) to 89% (Gers), against 50% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
What the rings say in Pyrénées-Atlantiques
- The count of validated recoveries in Pyrénées-Atlantiques 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.
What happens to the report
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. Without a match, the report stays on file for Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 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).
The regional picture
Besides Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region comprises Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Charente, Corrèze, Dordogne, Charente-Maritime, Landes, Haute-Vienne, Lot-et-Garonne, Creuse and Gironde. None of the 12 departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the regional overview). At 545, the number of municipalities here is the highest among the 12 departments of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 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 Pyrénées-Atlantiques 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.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Pyrénées-Atlantiques?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
How do I report a ringed partridge taken in Pyrénées-Atlantiques?
Just as for a pheasant: photo of the ring, number checked, species “red-legged partridge” or “grey partridge”, and the municipality. Nothing differs in Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
For federations
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 Pyrénées-Atlantiques so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).