Acoustic Monitoring Confirms Significant Poaching Pressure of European Turtle Doves (Streptopelia turtur) during Spring Migration across the Ionian Islands, Greece.

The European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is an Afro-Palearctic migrant whose populations have declined by 79% from 1980 to 2014. In 2018, the International Single Species Action Plan for the Turtle Dove (ISSAP) was developed with the goal of enabling, by 2028, an increase in turtle dove numbers along each of the three migration flyways (western, central, eastern). To achieve this, the illegal killing of turtle doves, a critical threat to the species, has to be eradicated. The Ionian Islands off the west coast of Greece lie on the eastern flyway and are considered a major turtle dove poaching hot-spot during spring migration. Quantifying wildlife crime, however, is challenging. In the absence of a reliable protocol for monitoring spring poaching levels, the agencies tasked with tackling the problem have no means of assessing the effectiveness of the anti-poaching measures and adapting them if required. Using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) methods, we recorded gun hunting intensity at known turtle dove poaching sites during the 2019-2022 spring migrations (2-10 sites/season) with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Based on published gunshot to killed/injured bird ratio for similar species (corroborated with discussions with local hunters) and an estimate of the proportion of hunting sites monitored by our PAM grid (using gunshot detection range estimates from control gunshots), we estimated that in 2021, up to 57,095 turtle doves were killed or injured across five Ionian Islands (Zakynthos, Paxi, Antipaxi, Othoni, and Mathraki). The 2022 estimate was almost half, but it is unclear as to whether the change is due to a decline in poachers or turtle doves. We propose ways of improving confidence in future estimates, and call for a temporary moratorium of autumn turtle dove hunting in Greece-as per ISSAP recommendation-until spring poaching is eradicated and the eastern flyway population shows signs of a full recovery. Finally, we hope our findings will pave the way for the development of PAM grids at turtle dove poaching hot-spots across all migration flyways, contributing to the global conservation of the species.

Long-term and large-scale multispecies dataset tracking population changes of common European breeding birds.

Around fifteen thousand fieldworkers annually count breeding birds using standardized protocols in 28 European countries. The observations are collected by using country-specific and standardized protocols, validated, summarized and finally used for the production of continent-wide annual and long-term indices of population size changes of 170 species. Here, we present the database and provide a detailed summary of the methodology used for fieldwork and calculation of the relative population size change estimates. We also provide a brief overview of how the data are used in research, conservation and policy. We believe this unique database, based on decades of bird monitoring alongside the comprehensive summary of its methodology, will facilitate and encourage further use of the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme results.