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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelBlimp" data-source="post: 1315840" data-attributes="member: 63179">As for the status of the "very healthy" population on the continent, I refer you to a statement by the BTO: "There has also been a highly significant mean decline across Europe as a whole during the 1990s (Sanderson et al. 2006)".And as for the effect of hunting, yes habitat loss plays a part, but again hunting is listed on the same page as "a possible cause of the UK decline", to add to those related to agricultural intensification that have been postulated for other farmland seed-eaters (O'Connor & Shrubb 1986, Krebs et al. 1999).And oh look! it is not mere happenstance that the quail you quote as being fair game has quote "Both the quail and the turtle dove, which are currently hunted in Malta, have an unfavourable conservation status in Europe." from an EU Bird Directive quoted on the forums before. But I suppose, these EU bureaucrats, what do they know?And the "tiny island in the middle of the mediterreanean" happens to be on a major turtle dove migration flightpath and with a lot of trigger happy hunters who consider it "fair game". Hence the suggestion that they might be a cause of the decline.What I mean is that neither legal hunters or poachers are having a sustainable effect on the populations and therefore not such a great distinction between them must be drawn as you intimate.</blockquote>