Coloured ring on the leg, number clearly legible: if you have recovered a farm-reared bird in Haute-Vienne, 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 Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which has 12 departments, the department is administered from Limoges.
Who validates recoveries in Haute-Vienne?
For department 87, 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 87.
Found a ring: what to do
- Photograph the ring, on the leg or once removed; if the number runs all the way round, take several shots.
- Say where the bird was taken: the municipality is used for validation and never appears in public.
- If the bird carries a wing tag rather than a leg ring, say so at the same step, together with the species.
- Send: with no signal, the report goes out on its own as soon as coverage returns.
The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and RingFollow
Besides Haute-Vienne, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region comprises Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gironde, Vienne, Creuse, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, Charente-Maritime, Dordogne, Corrèze, Deux-Sèvres and Charente. None of the 12 departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page).
RingFollow figures for Haute-Vienne
- So far, RingFollow has no validated recovery taken in Haute-Vienne.
- The validation queue for Haute-Vienne 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.
The breeding side: gibis.fr
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.
After you send it
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 87 and stays out of the public totals. No hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named: only totals per department and points rounded to about 1 km.
The department at a glance
According to CORINE Land Cover, agricultural areas covered 68% of the department in 2018, forests and semi-natural areas 28%. The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (4%) and water bodies (1%). About 5,560 km², 195 municipalities and 373,167 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. At 195, the number of municipalities here is the lowest among the department and its six neighbours. Its arrondissements are administered from Limoges (prefecture), Bellac and Rochechouart.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Across the borders
Its neighbours are Corrèze to the south-east, Charente to the west, Vienne to the north-west, Creuse to the east, Dordogne to the south-west and Indre to the north. Beyond the regional boundary lies the region of Centre-Val de Loire. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 49% (Corrèze) to 80% (Indre), against 68% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). The nearest department whose federation tracks its rings on RingFollow is Haute-Loire, about 220 km to the south-east as the crow flies between department centres. Next come Ain (about 320 km) and Isère (about 345 km).
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 Haute-Vienne as elsewhere. For an example, see the review of the 2025 pheasant-poult operation (Infochasse mag' no. 72, in French).
Your questions about Haute-Vienne
Why are there no statistics for Haute-Vienne?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Haute-Vienne hunters' federation (FDC 87) does not use RingFollow at present.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Haute-Vienne, 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.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Haute-Vienne?
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.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Haute-Vienne?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
How long is a report from Haute-Vienne 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.
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).