INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE.

1. Photo 6. Red-legged partridges drinking water. Photo 5. Footprints over white beach sand. APPROACH TO THE WATER CONSUMPTION AND USE OF ARTIFICIAL DRINKING PLACES BY WILD RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES (Alectoris rufa).BARTOLOMÉ, D.;PÉREZ, J.A.; DÍEZ, C.; ALONSO, M.E.; GAUDIOSO, V. Dpt. Animal Production II, Faculty of Veterinary of Leon. 24071. Spain.E.mail: dp2dbr@unileon.esX INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM PERDIX (BRAGA, PORTUGAL) INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE. The hydric necessities of hunting species are a relevant point, especially in dry years when the offer of water, fruits and grass in the field during the summery period is lower than usually. It could also become a restrictive factor to reproduction of birds capable of hunting exploitation. Other important point is the concentration in larger quantities of the main hunting species around areas where small natural fountains remain during the summery period, because the risk of death increases in these places due to the visit of predators. In the countries with Mediterranean climate, the summer is a critical period for the survival of animals and plants, that is why we studied water consumption and the frequent use of artificial drinking places distributed in an agricultural Mediterranean area during summer season of the year 2002. Surrounding the cement artificial drinking place, in a radio of 2 metres, it was scattered white beach sand with the purpose of controlling through the footprints the animals that went there to satisfy their hydric necessities. This sand was levelled at the end of each visit, after registering the footprints that were observed on it. Two weekly visits were paid to each artificial drinking place in order to take the appropriate measures of the small tanks, with the purpose of determining the water consumption and of registering the footprints of the sand. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. At sight of the obtained results we can assert that the wild fauna present in the farm preferred mainly the cleared artificial drinking places to satisfy their thirst, seeing that it was there where a greater water consumption and a greater presence of footprints appeared. Among the species, identified by their footprints, that went to these artificial drinking places we can point out the fox, the wolf, the partridge, the rabbit and the iberian hare. It was also verified the presence of footprints of the small avifauna that inhabits the farm, but it was not possible to identify concrete species. The species that most used the artificial drinking places were the rabbit and the iberian hare, then the fox and the wolf, the partridge and other birds. We observe that the red-legged partridge preferred mainly the cleared artificial drinking places to drink water, since it was there where we found a greater presence of footprints. It was also important the lowering produced in the frequency of use of the artificial drinking places by partridges and lagomorphs, after they were visited by some predator, well by the wolf or by the fox, going so far as to not come back to these places from then on. We must also highlight that in one occasion ones of the cleared artificial drinking place was found totally out of place, being the plastic pipe bitten and disjointed by some predator, presumably the wolf. MATERIAL AND METHODS. STUDY AREA. The realization of the study was carried out in the farm Coto Bajo of Matallana, property of the Most Excellent Country Council of Valladolid, located in the district of Villalba de los Alcores, in the North extreme of the province of Valladolid (41º 53’ 45”-41º 55’ 15” N latitude and 4º 51’ 10”-4º 52’ 50” W longitude), with a total extension of approximately 308 ha where a cynegetic fence has been built around. The farm lacks cynegetic exploitation. Therefore, the density of the different species is only conditioned by the relation predator-prey. With regard to permanent vegetation , it must be highlighted the important amount of reforested plants that includes several species such as pines, brushes and clump of brambles. As regards farming, we can stand out lands of cereal, concretely barley and alfalfa. ARTIFICIAL DRINKING PLACES. For the realization of the present work five artificial drinking places were used.They were situated in different locations of the farm, at a distance further than 500 m. from any other natural or artificial water point existing in the study area. Each artificial drinking place was composed by a central water tankof 400 l. coveredwith metal mesh, which comes out of elasticpipesthat unfold towards two smaller tanks of 25 l. At the same time, each one of the two smaller tanks comes outeach elastic pipes of 25 m.approximately, independents and underground that to flow into true artificial drinking places, artificial drinking places in the strict sense. The artificial drinking places, of cement and constant level, were placedin two different environments,one called cleared, and the other called protected . The difference lies in the vegetation that surrounds the artificial drinking place. This vegetation is inexistent in the case of the cleared artificial drinking place, and surrounded by bushes (Cytisus spp.), brambles and the rest of bushlike vegetation in the case of the protected artificial drinking place. Water flows towards the artificial drinking places due to a difference in the ground level. The small tanks were calibrated in such a way that it was possible to know separately the water consumption made in each one of the two types of artificial drinking places. These data were carried out by means of the extrapolation of the measure made with a small ruler. Photo 4. Beach sand surrounding artificial drinking place Photo 1. Central water tank and two smaller tanks. Graphic 1. Frequency of use of two cleared artificial drinking places by lagomorphs, red-legged partridges and predators. Photo 2. Cleared artificial drinking place. Photo 3. Protected artificial drinking place.