Thanks to the two training courses between the Italian Hunting Federation and the Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs, as part of Action C6 of the Life Perdix project, an innovative practice was learned and implemented in the Valle del Mezzano SPA protected area: the adoption of stays.

The adoption practice has been successfully implemented since last August. Pairs of Italian partridges without offspring have been identified and monitored since the summer. These couples, as well as some single individuals, have demonstrated a high predisposition to adoption. Groups of young nestlings aged 5 to 8 weeks were placed in small mobile aviaries, fed and hydrated daily. Wild pairs were approached in the aviaries and adoption was verified through unobtrusive observation.

The adoption of overnight stays has demonstrated significant benefits to the reintroduction process. The young sables, reintroduced at an age of 35-40 days, have learned directly from the adoptive couples many skills necessary for survival in the wild, such as searching for food and defending themselves from predators. This has significantly increased the chances of survival of the animals reintroduced into the Mezzano Valley, improving the overall quality of the reintroduction process.