Coloured ring on the leg, number clearly legible: if you have recovered a farm-reared bird in Vendée, here is where to report it and what happens to the information. Reports are useful to the ACCAs (approved communal hunting associations) and federations that organise releases; the public only ever sees totals per department. On the administrative map, department 85 belongs to the Pays de la Loire region; its prefecture is La Roche-sur-Yon.
Ring tracking in Vendée
For department 85, 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. 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 85.
From photo to report
- Start with a sharp photo of the ring: the number is read automatically, and you check it.
- Enter the municipality, La Roche-sur-Yon or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- State the species, grey partridge or hare for example, and if you know them, the sex and circumstances of the recovery.
- Send it. For 24 hours you can still remove or add a photo.
Recoveries and reports in Vendée
- The count of validated recoveries in Vendée still stands at zero.
- The validation queue for Vendée is empty.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
Around Vendée
Its neighbours are Charente-Maritime to the south-east, Deux-Sèvres to the east, Maine-et-Loire to the north-east and Loire-Atlantique to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 76% (Charente-Maritime) to 88% (Deux-Sèvres), against 86% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
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 Vendée as elsewhere. For an example, see the review of the 2025 pheasant-poult operation (Infochasse mag' no. 72, in French).
The department at a glance
According to CORINE Land Cover, agricultural areas covered 86% of the department in 2018, artificial surfaces 8%. The rest is shared between forests and semi-natural areas (5%) and wetlands (1%). About 6,770 km², 253 municipalities and 713,609 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. With the share of agricultural areas at 86%, the department is in the top five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Besides La Roche-sur-Yon, the prefecture, the department has two sub-prefectures: Fontenay-le-Comte and Les Sables-d'Olonne.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
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.
The regional picture
The other departments of the region are Mayenne, Loire-Atlantique, Sarthe and Maine-et-Loire. None of the five departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). The share of forests and semi-natural areas (5%) is lower here than in any other department of the Pays de la Loire region.
From report to validation
The report is recorded as soon as it arrives, with the photo and the municipality given. 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 Vendée, 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).
Frequently asked questions
Does GIBIS validate reports from Vendée?
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 Vendée 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 Vendée?
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.
Why are there no statistics for Vendée?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Vendée hunters' federation (FDC 85) does not use RingFollow at present.
How do I recognise a Gibis ring found in Vendée?
A coloured, numbered leg ring, or a numbered coloured plastic wing tag, with no address. A ring engraved with an address belongs to another scheme: the guide explains where to report it.
A federation that would like to track its rings
A registered federation validates the recoveries in its own department and can export its data. Full list: Federations; contact: gibis@gibis.fr.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).