Waterfowl hunting plays a complex role in the conservation of waterbird populations. While hunting can provide conservation benefits, excessive or unregulated hunting may threaten waterbird populations, particularly for species with declining numbers or high sensitivity to human disturbances. To increase our understanding of the effects of hunting‐related disturbance on huntable and protected waterbirds, we investigated the responses of waterbird numbers to temporal and spatial variations in hunting pressures in the Hérault department (southern France). First, we compared waterbird numbers before and after the opening of the hunting season at two sites with hunting activity but with different opening dates, as well as in one reserve where hunting is prohibited. Second, using monthly (October–March) census data from all major coastal wetlands in the department across four years, we compared the proportion of birds present inside reserves versus outside reserves during the hunting period (October–January) and after the hunting period (February–March). The results show that the opening of the hunting season has a strong and immediate effect, reducing the numbers of individuals of both huntable and protected species by approximately half at the two investigated hunted sites. During the winter, when hunting pressure is considerably lower than at the opening, the effects are more nuanced and, in the investigated data, non‐significant for protected species. Yet, the proportion of huntable species present in reserves versus outside reserves during the hunting period is approximately double the proportion found after the hunting period. In particular, ducks and coot Fulica atra were strongly concentrated in reserves during the hunting period but more widely distributed afterwards. The results thus demonstrate that hunting activities (at least as practised in the study area) strongly affect the use of available wetlands by waterbirds.
Tronel et al. (Wed,) studied this question.