Home range and habitat use by the endangered grey partridge (Perdix perdix) in the Irish midlands

Abstract

In Ireland, an 86% decline in distribution was recorded for grey partridge (Perdix perdix) between 1968 and 1991 (Sharrock, 1976; Gibbons et al, 1993). By 1995, only two wild populations remained, in Boora, Co. Offaly and Lullymore, Co. Kildare (Kavanagh, 1992; 1998). Both areas contained a mosaic of cutaway bog and farmland, with evidence that pairs were breeding on cutaway bog (Kavanagh, 1992). Partridge traditionally breed on farmland (Potts, 1986; Birkan & Jacob, 1988) and similar declines in Britain and Europe have coincided with agricultural intensification (Potts, 1986; Tucker & Heath, 1994, Hagemeijer & Blair, 1997, Aebischer & Potts, 1998). Twenty three of the 27 other species of birds which live in grey partridge habitat in Ireland and Britain are declining (Gibbons et al., 1993) and hundreds of farmland plant and insect species have also declined (Firbank et al, 1991). Cutaway bog is an open, mostly barren habitat following industrial peat extraction Recolonisation by a variety of plant communities occurs in subsequent years (Kavanagh, 1990, Egan, 1995). Cutaway bog has not been described in partridge studies outside Ireland.