A ringed partridge or pheasant recovered in Var only tells its story if the ring number is reported, and that takes a minute. 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 83 belongs to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region; its prefecture is Toulon.
Validating recoveries in Var
The Var hunters' federation (FDC 83) is not among the federations registered on RingFollow. 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 Var.
Found a ring: what to do
- Start with a sharp photo of the ring: the number is read automatically, and you check it.
- Enter the municipality, Toulon or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- 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.
Key facts about Var
According to CORINE Land Cover, forests and semi-natural areas covered 69% of the department in 2018, agricultural areas 20%. The rest is mostly artificial surfaces (10%). About 6,030 km², 153 municipalities and 1,119,307 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. Its arrondissements are administered from Toulon (prefecture), Brignoles and Draguignan.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
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 Without a match, the report stays on file for Var, unpublished, until a federation can validate it.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.
What the rings say in Var
- The count of validated recoveries in Var still stands at zero.
- The validation queue for Var is empty.
- For comparison, all of France: 3,592 ringed birds in 85 releases and 16 validated recoveries (5 participating federations); details on the Statistics page.
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 Var.
Around Var
Its neighbours are Vaucluse to the north-west, Bouches-du-Rhône to the west, Alpes-Maritimes to the north-east and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence to the north. All its neighbours belong, like the department itself, to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Among its neighbours, the share of forests and semi-natural areas ranges from 36% (Bouches-du-Rhône) to 86% (Alpes-Maritimes), against 69% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Isère, about 210 km to the north (centre to centre). Next come Haute-Corse (about 270 km) and Haute-Loire (about 270 km).
The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and RingFollow
The other departments of the region are Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône and Alpes-Maritimes. None of the six departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region).
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.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Var?
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.
How long is a report from Var 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.
Which neighbouring departments track their rings on RingFollow?
None of its direct neighbours. The nearest registered federation is in Isère, about 210 km away between department centres.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Var, 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.
Who validates a recovery reported in Var?
A hunters' federation: the one for the department where the bird was originally released, if it is registered on RingFollow. The Var hunters' federation (FDC 83) does not use RingFollow at present, and GIBIS never validates.
A federation that would like to track its rings
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).