With the arrival of autumn, the general hunting season begins, with hardly any respite for wild animals after the end of a half-season season in which doves, quails, wild birds, foxes and rabbits, among others, have been chased and hunted until mid-September. When we talk about half-close season we are referring to the summer period outside the general hunting season in which for one month the hunting of some species such as rock pigeons, wood pigeons, quail, foxes and magpies, among others, is authorized, with the aim of kill some migratory species, such as quail. This period begins in mid-August and ends approximately the third week of September, although it is not the same in all provinces.
The species covered by the general hunting season also vary by province and, with the exception of rabbits, which reproduce throughout the year, it is in autumn when the so-called “game” animals have finished their reproductive cycle, so the administrations authorize the opening of the general hunting season on this date.
The European Bird Directive prohibits hunting during the breeding season to guarantee the conservation of all species. However, if we consult the Bird guide From Seo BirdLife we found that the reproduction dates of the species subject to the half-closure, such as quail, doves and wild birds, coincide with the time in which they are authorized to be killed. In this guide, the quail is defined as “a species with great reproductive capacity with the possibility of laying two or three eggs per year. “A part of the population carries out a first laying in February-March in the south of the peninsula, to make a second laying in June-July.” For its part, “the pigeon lays two eggs a year, between March and September, with maximums from April to July, whose eggs are incubated for 18 days. “Chicks fledge between 20 and 35 days.”
The rock pigeon (Columba livia)also hunted during the closed season, reproduces throughout the year, although its reproductive activity is concentrated in spring and summer. According to the MALP association (Mis Amigas Las Palomas), which is dedicated to the rescue and care of columbiformes, “all Iberian pigeons breed in spring and summer, and in the months of August and September, despite not being the peak of breeding, there are still chicks of all these species. In the third week of August, chicks under two weeks old enter MALP, and the wildlife rehabilitation centers. Likewise, the breeding season is not only the laying and incubation and rearing of the chicks in the nest, which can vary between four and six weeks after the chicks hatch, but there are between two and four weeks after the departure of the nest. nest in which juvenile chicks learn from their parents where to drink, how to flee from predators, where to sleep, where to feed (camping areas) and the basic skills to survive, in principle, with their family or flock. A wood pigeon chick is not emancipated by leaving its nest one meter away, it depends on its parents for many more days, while it learns to eat and drink on its own and trains its flight and knows its environment with its parents to seek the future. water, food, shelter and security.”
Regarding the fox, another of the most persecuted and harassed animals in the hunting world, it has a variable mating period, strongly conditioned by the length of daylight. The temperature and availability of food allow you to adjust some of the variations in your internal clock. In Europe, the reproductive cycle takes place between January and February, and gestation lasts between 51 and 53 days; Therefore, the births of foxes are between March and April. By the fourth month of life the puppies, still dependent on the adults, have reached three kg in weight. At this time they begin to expand their living space, which causes many accidents in the dispersion.
Anyone who knows a little about wild animals will know that a four-month-old mammal is in no way emancipated and is absolutely dependent on its parents. Needless to say, they have not developed sufficient skills to escape persecution and that the breeding season is not limited exclusively to breastfeeding and the first forays out of the burrows, but covers the entire period between birth and the time of emancipation. , which in the case of foxes usually occurs in autumn.
All you have to do is compare the half-close season calendars and those of the breeding season to see that this type of hunting coincides with the breeding period of the target species. This does not mean that all animals have not yet bred, but many species of birds lay several eggs and, of course, there are many pigeon chicks, quail chicks and baby foxes that have just begun to live and that They do not have any resources to flee or defend themselves from hunting harassment.
The Ecologistas en Acción and Seo BirdLife associations have requested on several occasions an end to this practice because it violates the regulations of not hunting during the breeding season: “In addition to the fact that many quail chicks have been seen and even killed, we must add that There are still many offspring dependent on their parents, there are still many pairs that are incubating and females that were developing eggs inside have been killed. This means that there is no possibility of carrying out breeding to completion, in many cases not even starting it, which for a species in clear regression, such as the quail, represents added pressure,” denounces Ecologistas en Acción.
For its part, Seo BirdLife opposes “the hunting of declining species because it contravenes European legislation and because, although the main cause of population decline is not hunting, the loss of specimens due to this activity is unacceptable. Furthermore, the time in which this happens, right at the end of the breeding season, makes juveniles particularly sensitive to hunting. In some cases, the young have not yet left the nests, so the adults are particularly vulnerable because they are feeding the young.”
The world of hunters denies this fact because they are aware of the absolute rejection that they produce in society, although sometimes they are the ones who betray themselves and admit that they kill chickens and pigeons, as demonstrated in the following video, in which, during the story On a day of hunting doves during the half-season, a hunter laments that the majority of his victims are chicks (minutes 4-6 and 8-9).
As if that were not enough, in the following capture on social networks, to which we have had access, a hunter admits that he has had to kill chickens to complete his quail perches and reach the quota.
Forest guard Andoni Díaz, with whom we have collaborated on many occasions, says that, in his thirty years of service, he has seen many hunters in the half-season with hunting perches full of quail chicks.
As if all this were not enough, in each hunting season, and also in the half-season season, we have countless examples of victims among non-game species and among protected species, and this taking into account that only a small part remains recorded. As an example, these images of partridges (which cannot be hunted) killed along with quail, and of an eagle that had been released by Grefa and whose corpse could be located thanks to its GPS.
If hunting is a cruel, anachronistic activity, lacking in sense and reason, with the half-close season it reaches levels of moral destitution that are impossible to digest for a society that is increasingly empathetic towards the rest of its companions with whom we share the planet.
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