GOSHAWK (ACCIPITER-GENTILIS) TRAPPING IN THE NATURE-RESERVE WURZACHERRIED - CRITICAL QUESTIONS ON A BLACK GROUSE (TETRAO-TETRIX) REINTRODUCTION PROJECT

A Black Grouse reintroduction project was established in 1978 in the n ature reserve Wurzacher Ried in southwestern Germany. Since the beginn ing of this project the staff had a licence to catch, ring and to rele ase but not to kill goshawks. A comparison of the very low Euring-reco very-rate of 1 percent from this project with the Euring-recovery-rate of the Vogelwarte Radolfzell (13 %) showed a significant difference ( p = 0.00017). In contrast, we found no difference between the recovery -rate (15 %) of a study with almost similar design conducted by the Un iversity of Tubingen (SCHMIDT-KOENIG 1982) only 100 km apart from the Wurzacher Ried and the Euring-recovery-rate of the Vogelwarte Radolfze ll (p = 0.624). The recovery-rate of the reintroduction project differ ed, however, significantly from the recovery-rate of SCHMIDT-KOENIG NI G (p = 0.006). Furthermore, we found serious inconsistencies between t he project reports and the ringing documents concerning this project. Our results indicate, that most of the goshawks caught in the project Wurzacher Ried may not have been released but illegally killed by the project staff.