Market value of restocking and landscape in red-legged partridge hunting: a study based on advertisements

Context In Spain, the release of farm-reared partridges to hunt is increasingly used, despite being thought to affect sustainability of wild stocks and to reduce the need of natural habitats for game. Aims To explore the market value as a possible incentive for current management, we evaluated within a segment of the red-legged partridge hunting market whether the use of farm-reared birds (as opposed to wild stock) or the naturalisation of landscapes are affecting the hunt market price. Methods We considered estates that sell individual hunting days and contacted buyers through advertisements. We gathered all advertisements for the 2010 season in four top hunting magazines and two websites, and conducted a telephone survey to record price and associated characteristics of hunts. We looked for relationships between price and the characteristics of sold hunts, using general linear models. Key results Hunts varied largely in price, but neither restocking nor naturalisation of the landscape explained price variation, at least within our sample of estates. The absence of price difference between wild or released partridges could be reflecting the current difficulty to distinguish both kinds of products in the market. Conclusions Market forces alone might not be promoting the public interest of the sustainable use of wild stocks versus industrial hunting based on farm-reared birds. Implications If promoting conservation and sustainable use of wild stocks is considered a major goal of official institutions in charge of biodiversity conservation and game management, they should promote reliable ways of identifying estates selling wild or restocked partridges, and they should also evaluate benefits and costs associated with hunting farm-reared birds relative to wild birds, so as to help internalise these costs and benefits if necessary. A study of the determinants of hunter demands would also help explain variation in supply and market prices.