SummaryWith a decline exceeding 30% over three generations, the once-common European Turtle-dove is now considered globally threatened by IUCN. As a legal game species in 10 European countries, the recent International Single Species Action Plan for this species highlighted the need to carry out an assessment of the sustainability of current levels of hunting. In 2013–2014, the Western European population was estimated at 1.3–2.1 million pairs, and the hunting bag in the same region to be 1.1 million birds. Using the Demographic Invariant Method, we assessed whether current levels of hunting harvest within Europe constitute overexploitation of the western flyway European Turtle-dove population. We calculated the maximum growth rate λmax that a population might achieve in the absence of any additive mortality. Then we estimated the potential maximum harvestable population fraction (P) allowed by excess population growth. We explored a wide range of plausible scenarios relating to assumed demographic rates, geographic scope of the flyway and management objectives. λmax was estimated to lie between 1.551 and 1.869. Current levels of hunting along the western flyway are more than double the sustainable fraction (P) under all suitably conservative scenarios, and only fall below this threshold under the most restrictive assumptions. We conclude that current levels of legal hunting along the western flyway are unlikely to be sustainable. Reducing uncertainty associated with assessments of the sustainability of turtle dove hunting will require improved information on (in order of decreasing importance) current levels of hunting, adult survival, age structure and population size.

中文翻译：

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评估沿欧洲西部飞行路线收获欧洲斑鸠的可持续性

总结随着三代人的下降超过 30%，曾经常见的欧洲斑鸠现在被认为受到 IUCN 的全球威胁。作为 10 个欧洲国家的合法狩猎物种，最近针对该物种的国际单一物种行动计划强调了对当前狩猎水平的可持续性进行评估的必要性。2013-2014 年，西欧人口估计为 1.3-210 万对，同一地区的猎袋为 110 万只。使用人口统计不变法，我们评估了欧洲目前的狩猎收获水平是否构成对西方飞行路线欧洲斑鸠种群的过度捕捞。我们计算了最大增长率 λ最大限度在没有任何附加死亡率的情况下，人口可能会实现这一目标。然后我们估计了过度人口增长所允许的潜在最大可收获人口分数（P）。我们探索了与假定的人口比例、飞行路线的地理范围和管理目标相关的各种合理情景。λ最大限度估计位于 1.551 和 1.869 之间。在所有适当保守的情景下，目前沿西部飞行路线的狩猎水平是可持续分数 (P) 的两倍多，并且仅在最严格的假设下低于该阈值。我们得出的结论是，目前沿西部航线的合法狩猎水平不太可能是可持续的。减少与评估斑鸠狩猎可持续性相关的不确定性将需要改进有关（按重要性递减）当前狩猎水平、成年存活率、年龄结构和种群规模的信息。