This page is for anyone who hunts in Haut-Rhin 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. On the administrative map, department 68 belongs to the Grand Est region; its prefecture is Colmar.
Who validates recoveries in Haut-Rhin?
For department 68, 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 Haut-Rhin.
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 366 in Haut-Rhin: it locates the recovery but is never published.
- State the species, grey partridge or hare for example, and if you know them, the sex and circumstances of the recovery.
- Send: with no signal, the report goes out on its own as soon as coverage returns.
What next?
Once sent, the report is kept; if you left an e-mail address, an acknowledgement follows. 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 68 and stays out of the public totals. Reports are kept for five hunting seasons after the recovery, then retained only in anonymised form for statistics (see the privacy policy).
Key facts about Haut-Rhin
According to CORINE Land Cover, agricultural areas covered 44% of the department in 2018, forests and semi-natural areas 44%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (11%) and water bodies (1%). INSEE counts 366 municipalities and 770,738 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 3,530 km². Its arrondissements are administered from Colmar (prefecture), Altkirch, Mulhouse and Thann.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
RingFollow figures for Haut-Rhin
- The count of validated recoveries in Haut-Rhin still stands at zero.
- No report linked to the department is awaiting validation.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
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.
Across the borders
Its neighbours are Vosges to the north-west, Territoire de Belfort to the south-west and Bas-Rhin to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 42% (Territoire de Belfort) to 49% (Bas-Rhin), against 44% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Ain, about 245 km to the south-west (centre to centre). Next comes Isère (about 315 km).
The Grand Est region and RingFollow
Besides Haut-Rhin, the Grand Est region comprises Marne, Aube, Vosges, Haute-Marne, Meuse, Moselle, Ardennes, Bas-Rhin and Meurthe-et-Moselle. None of the ten departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). At 366, the number of municipalities here is the lowest among the ten departments of the Grand Est region.
Breeding and restocking
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.
Your questions about Haut-Rhin
Does GIBIS validate reports from Haut-Rhin?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
Why are there no statistics for Haut-Rhin?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Haut-Rhin hunters' federation (FDC 68) does not use RingFollow at present.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Haut-Rhin, 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.
Can I report a ring without a mobile signal in Haut-Rhin?
Yes. The form keeps the report on the phone and sends it as soon as coverage returns, wherever you are in Haut-Rhin.
Will my name appear on the Haut-Rhin page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
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.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).