Populatiedynamiek van de patrijs in Vlaanderen

Partridge is one of the farmland bird species experiencing the sharpest decline in Europe. In Flanders, too, the population continues to fall. We used population modelling to investigate the relative importance of various factors on population growth. We used a detailed population model that takes into account the various stages of the partridge’s life cycle. We used this to determine to what extent improving one or more model parameters would result in a recovery of the population.
For two parameters, increasing just one of them theoretically leads to a stable population. These are ‘hen survival during laying and brooding of the first clutch’ and ‘chick survival’. The other parameters must be combined to achieve a similar result. We therefore recommend increasing several model parameters simultaneously to facilitate population recovery. Demographic improvements can be supported by targeted management measures.