Red-legged Partridge - a case of muddled status

Here in the UK, many birdwatchers don’t give the poor old Red-legged Partridge Alectoris rufa a second glance. Afterall it is not native here, having been introduced, and continually being introduced, for the purpose of being killed. Estimates vary but one source puts the figure at around 6.5 million captive-bred birds released in the UK each year for the purposes of being shot. Other reports place the number at around 10 million captive-bred birds released each year. Issues regarding the species in the UK relate to the environmental consequences for native plants and animals of releasing such a vast alien biomass into the countryside, and the impact that managing the environment for their benefit has on natural biodiversity.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Red-legged Partridge is native to France, Spain and northern Italy and BirdLife International now classify the species as Near Threatened because of declines in wild populations. That’s a reclassification and an unwelcome upgrade for the partridge, as highlighted in BirdLife International’s Red List 2020. Reasons behind its decline are said to include agricultural intensification, habitat loss and unsustainable hunting, and the report states that over 60% of its estimated population may be shot each year.

In its mainland European native range Red-legged Partridge numbers are augmented, as in the UK, by the release each year of captive-bred birds liberated for the purpose of being shot. It’s hard to imagine that these releases do not have consequences for the stability of native populations, not to mention their genetic mix. And in some locations the releases are on such a scale that they could quite conceivably result in environmental consequences through sheer biomass liberation.