Coloured ring on the leg, number clearly legible: if you have recovered a farm-reared bird in Rhône, here is where to report it and what happens to the information. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. Part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which has 12 departments, the department is administered from Lyon.
Who validates recoveries in Rhône?
For department 69, no federation uses 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 69.
From photo to report
- Photograph the ring, on the leg or once removed; if the number runs all the way round, take several shots.
- Choose the municipality where the bird was taken, from the 266 in Rhône: it locates the recovery but is never published.
- State the species, red-legged partridge or pheasant 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.
RingFollow figures for Rhône
- No validated recovery has been located in Rhône on RingFollow so far.
- 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.
Breeding and restocking
RingFollow tracks rings; breeding, species and restocking are covered on gibis.fr: game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges.
What a reported ring is for
The recovery rate is the number of validated rings divided by the number of birds released. It only exists if hunters report, in Rhône as elsewhere. For an example, see the review of the 2025 pheasant-poult operation (Infochasse mag' no. 72, in French).
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. If no release matches, the report is kept under department 69 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).
The regional picture
Besides Rhône, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region comprises Allier, Drôme, Loire, Savoie, Haute-Loire, Haute-Savoie, Isère, Puy-de-Dôme, Ardèche, Ain and Cantal. Three of the 12 departments in the region have their federation on RingFollow: Ain, Isère and Haute-Loire (see the regional overview). The share of artificial surfaces (18%) is higher here than in any other department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Rhône and its neighbours
Four departments border it: Loire to the south-west, Saône-et-Loire to the north, Isère to the south-east and Ain to the north-east. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 40% (Isère) to 72% (Saône-et-Loire), against 58% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). Of these, Ain and Isère track their rings on RingFollow.
- Ain (01) on RingFollow
- Isère (38) on RingFollow
- Loire (42)
- Saône-et-Loire (71)
The department at a glance
According to CORINE Land Cover, agricultural areas covered 58% of the department in 2018, forests and semi-natural areas 23%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (18%) and water bodies (1%). INSEE counts 266 municipalities and 1,914,667 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 3,260 km². With the population at 1,914,667 inhabitants in 2022, the department is in the top five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Besides Lyon, the prefecture, the department has one sub-prefecture: Villefranche-sur-Saône.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Frequently asked questions
Will my name appear on the Rhône page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Rhône, 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.
Why are there no statistics for Rhône?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Rhône hunters' federation (FDC 69) does not use RingFollow at present.
Who validates a recovery reported in Rhône?
A hunters' federation: the one for the department where the bird was originally released, if it is registered on RingFollow. The Rhône hunters' federation (FDC 69) does not use RingFollow at present, and GIBIS never validates.
How do I report a ringed partridge taken in Rhône?
Just as for a pheasant: photo of the ring, number checked, species “red-legged partridge” or “grey partridge”, and the municipality. Nothing differs in Rhône.
Registering a federation
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 Rhône so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).