End of traditional hunts in Gironde: no one will pluck the lark anymore, nice lark

The famous nursery rhyme no longer holds water: the capture of larks is now prohibited in Gironde, as well as in three other departments in the South-West where it was still practiced.

The new ban follows the repeal, on May 6, 2024, of two orders previously governing the capture of these small birds.

Protected in the rest of the European Union

Each year, thanks to these decrees, the government supervised the capture of skylarks by means of nets and cages, called pantes and matoles, in the South-West. But, as the French Bird Protection League (LPO) points out, these hunting methods are “contrary to the 2009 European “birds” directive.

The orders have finally disappeared from French law, following the example of the rest of European countries where these small birds are often already protected. According to the LPO, the skylark has lost half of its European numbers since 1980 and a quarter of its French population over the last twenty years.

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