Gentleman Bob
SOME call him bobwhite, others partridge, yet others simply "bird."
By any name, Colinus uirginianus is a fine little chap and a gentleman of taste.
He dresses conservatively and well, in grays and copper, bronze and black, with a formal touch of white at his throat. When he feels like it, he can ruffle up a cocky topknot for a stroll among the ladies or an hour of whistling from a fence post top. His favorite song is his own name, but what he might lack in modesty he makes up in being a good family man, a friendly neighbor and a fine companion for a chilly November morning.
He's not much of a traveler and probably will die within a half-mile of where
he hatched. He's a peerless dweller of fence rows and farmland edges and suffers
when his habitat is weeded out. Though he prefers his home a little shaggy around
the ears, bobwhite won't live in a slum. He wants his food and water close at
hand and if you take away the weedy places where he likes to hide, he'll
simply die.
An
eight-ounce bird is bound to have some enemies, and bobwhite has enough for
a fellow ten times his size. Besides the usual hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes,
weasels and the odd feral housecat, bobwhite can run afoul of blizzards, fires,
hailstorms, floods, ice storms, heavy rain, herbicides, insecticides, mowing
machines, white buildings and plate-glass windows. But bobwhite has more grit
than a grizzly bear, and he can breed himself back almost from the edge of oblivion.
All he asks are a good grainfield and a few thick weed patches or a brushy hedge.
Bobwhite is a gentleman with a pedigree, a family tree that goes back a million years or more. With some help from us, he can still be lacing the evening air with his name a million years from now.
--Michael McIntosh
THE
DECLINE of bobwhite quail populations in Missouri is a thorny issue for sportsmen,
landowners and the Conservation Department alike. It is, for all of us, a challenge-to
determine the causes of the decline and to find ways of reversing it. There
is no simple solution, no quick-fix remedy, but with effort and cooperation,
it can be done.
Like all wildlife, quail populations are affected by a multitude of factors: habitat, weather. predation and harvest. All of these are interrelated, and the impact of any one of them on quail can change from season to season, from place to place-Each can be a deadly threat or a minor problem. None can be ignored.
Still, one factor stands out, for quail as it does for every living thing on earth-habitat. Good habitat satisfies the need for food, for water, for shelter. Habitat is a place to live, and without a place to live, there can be no life.
Habitat - the cycles of change
BOBWHITE
QUAIL are creatures of the edge, of the transition zone where one kind of habitat
meets another. Before man arrived and changed the landscape, quail in Missouri
lived between the oak-hickory forest and the tallgrass prairie, in the narrow
band that was neither timber nor grassland but rather a combination of both.
At ground level, where quail live, it was open habitat, kept that way by natural
fire and by the struggle for supremacy between the trees and the grass.
In terms of area, of the sheer number of acres, there was far more timber and prairie than there was natural edge. Bobwhite numbers probably fluctuated dramatically, and the birds probably ranged over an area of several miles each year, moving with the seasons and in response to weather and fire, available food and predators.
European settlers who came to Missouri brought vast changes to the landscape and to the creatures that lived on it. In the early 19th century man created a bonanza for quail. He cleared the forests and broke the thick prairie sod. His crop fields and bluegrass pastures were small, surrounded by split-rail fences and Osage orange hedgerows where annual weeds and brush flourished. Man created, essentially, vast new areas of edge, and there quail flourished, too.
So
long as agriculture remained small-scale and relatively inefficient, Missouri
had an abundance of quail. But by the 194Os, agriculture had begun to mature,
and by the '60s intensive farming was the order of the day. To show a profit,
farming had to become increasingly efficient. The old, small fields gave way
to larger ones as thousands upon thousands of acres of brushy woods, draws and
hedgerows disappeared to become extra rows of corn or soybeans or fescue pasture.
Farmers and wildlife alike struggled against powerful economic tides. Simply staying afloat meant increasingly greater investments and more intensive use of the land. Ultimately, everyone paid the price. Wildlife declined as habitat disappeared. The very health of the land suffered as exposed topsoil washed into the waterways or simply blew away. Erosion finally became so pervasive that Missouri came to rank third in the nation-behind Tennessee and Kentucky-for the annual loss of topsoil. Unhealthy land can support neither people nor wildlife. Good soil and water management is essential for everyone's well-being.
South of the Missouri River, tall fescue became the dominant forage, replacing legumes, bluegrass and warn-season native grass pastures. Even under the best weather conditions, fescue pastures that are grazed year-round offer virtually no usable food or cover for quail. If adjoining woodlands are also grazed, habitat quality deteriorates even further.
Since
the mid-1960s, Missouri quail populations twice have sharply declined and then
recovered. The most extended decline came in 1976 through 1979, when vicious
winter weather hammered the state for three years running. Ire storms followed
by arctic cold did the same thing in December 1983, devastating quail populations
In both cases, populations recovered much more quickly in areas where there
was a mixture of grain crops and woody cover.
South-Missouri quail have been particularly hard-hit. In the Ozarks, the proportion of grain crops to pasture land is small; in the Bootheel, grain crops predominate over everything. Quail have not recovered well in either region. The habitat simply isn't there, and until it is, the quail won't be there, either.
It
is a simple, unarguable fact that wildlife populations rise and fall according
to the quantity and quality of the habitat available to them. Missouri quail
are no exception. Over the past fifty years, the population trend has been steadily
downward, a result of larger fields, cleaner farming, fall plowing, wider use
of agricultural chemicals, more fescue pastures, fewer fence rows and brushy
draws, andless fallow ground. Where there is no habitat, there can be no quail.
Cropfields with no brushy borders provide some food but no cover. Overgrazed fescue offers bobwhite nothing at all.
Weather - Playing The Hand That Nature Deals
0F
ALL the many factors that affect bobwhite quail, weather is second only to habitat
in its impact on the populations. Biologists generally agree that the more variable
the weather is, the greater are the year-to-year fluctuations in quail numbers.
Since the mid-1970s, weather all across the United States has swung wildly from one extreme to another. Winters have been either unusually warm or unusually cold: rainfall has ranged from far too much to far too little. Statistically, such variation can be expected to occur only once every thousand years or so, but statistics are little consolation to wildlife.
By comparison, weather was unusually mild during the twenty years from 1955 through 1975. The same period shows some of the best quail populations recorded in recent Missouri history. Habitat quality certainly played a major role, but mild weather still was an important factor. Even in the exception-the winter of 1960-quail population data clearly indicated that where the habitat was good, winter losses were fewer and the subsequent recovery quicker. Brutal winter weather kills quail, but good habitat helps keep the losses down and allows the survivors to breed back more quickly.
North-Missouri winters seem harsher than those in the Ozarks. Certainly, there is greater snowfall in the north, but the real impact of winter weather on north-Missouri quail is anything but clear-cut. Despite the harsher winters, long-term population trends indicate that quail have fared better in the north than in the south. The inescapable fact is that something other than winter snows and summer droughts is playing havoc with our quail, and that something is habitat quality, which is better overall in the north.
Winter isn't the only season when weather influences quail populations. Heavy rains during the spring nesting season can undo all the advantages of a mild winter. Summer drought and blazing heat lower the number of eggs that hatch, wither the plants that quail eat and make water scarce. For quail, like all wildlife, survival is a year-round struggle.
Even though our weather varies dramatically, Missouri lies in the most hospitable part of the bobwhite's range. Weather here isn't nearly as hard on quail as it is in states to the north and west. On the fringes of bobwhite range, drought and harsh winters can reduce populations to what seems to be nil; even so, well-protected coveys will survive, and a few clutches will hatch even in hot, dry summers. Given a year or two of favorable weather, populations will come back if the habitat is good.
Predation - The Presence Of His Enemies
QUAIL
are vulnerable to predators their whole lives through. The list of animals known
to prey on quail is impressive: skunks, opossums, foxes, raccoons, cotton rats,
weasels, mink, bobcats, ground squirrels, fox squirrels, gray squirrels, Cooper's
hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, marsh hawks, great-horned owls, bluejays, crows
and turkeys both wild and domestic. Several species of snakes will eat eggs,
chicks and adult quail. Housecats and dogs sometimes prey heavily on eggs and
incubating adults. Hogs are known to eat quail eggs. Even tortoises and box
turtles get into the act. There may be still other predators not yet identified.
At first glance, it might seem as though predators are a serious threat to Missouri quail, but in fact, they are not. That any number of animals will eat quail or quail eggs if they have the chance doesn't mean they make a specialty of it. There are at least 100 different prey animals in Missouri-from mice to fish-and quail are among the least of them. Hawks and owls and foxes eat far more mice and insects than quail. No Missouri predator specializes in bobwhites. It is difficult to pin down the exact impact that predators have on quail populations. Certainly, the impact varies from place to place, from season to season, according to the numbers of quail, predators and other prey animals. Still, considerable research has been focused on this phenomenon over the years, and the results do offer a useful perspective. Studies from several: states show that quail make up only four to six pecent of the great-horned owl's diet. The proportion is even smaller for sharp-shinned, Cooper's, redtailed and marsh hawks. Considering the enormous numbers of crop-destroying rodents these hawks eat, no one should begrudge them a quail now and then.
In
the 195Os, Conservation Department research biologist Leroy Korschgen extensively
studied quail predation by mammals in Missouri. He found quail in just over
two percent of the more than 1,000 red fox stomachs he examined and in fewer
than one percent of 770 coyote stomachs. Fewer than one in 100 housecat stomachs
contained quail. The study clearly showed that these predators subsist largely
on rabbits, mice and rats.
Predator control has been practiced for years throughout bobwhite range, and it has never proven to be a substitute for good habitat management. Groton Plantation, at Estill, South Carolina, is a prime example. Land managers doubled the number of bobwhite coveys-from 300 to 600-over a three-year period without any predator-control effort at all; they simply improved the habitat.
The image of a fox or coyote or barnyard cat, round-bellied and belching quail feathers, is a handy scapegoat, but it is misleading. Given good food for strength and good cover for protection, bobwhite can hold his own against any predator-just as he's been doing for a million years or more.
Harvest - Seeking A Balance
THE
BOBWHITE is a superb game bird, and the traditions of quail hunting run deep
in human culture throughout the southeastern United States. From the pine woods
of the Deep South to the Cornbelt prairies, King Bob is the stuff of chilly
fall days, keen-nosed pointing dogs and gunshots amid the thunder of a covey
rise.
As with every other game animal, quail hunting is carefully regulated to provide both optimum sport and the continued survival of a healthy population. Regulating quail harvest on a statewide basis involves practical as well as theoretical considerations, all of which must be based on sound scientific principles.
The scientific community has for many years debated two basic theories on quail harvest-the concepts of annual surplus and sustained yield.
The annual-surplus concept is the older and has for fifty years served as the biological justification for hunting quail. This approach holds that more individual quail are produced each year than can survive, creating an annual surplus that will perish whether hunted or not.
Recently published conclusions from a thirty-two- year research study in Illinois clearly show that the annual-surplus concept is neither entirely right nor entirely wrong. The study indicates that the quail taken by hunters are not, as was previously thought, exactly compensated by an equal reduction in the number of quail that die from natural causes.
Sustained yield is a theory borrowed from fisheries management, and it has proven to be a useful tool in managing the harvest of big game. Essentially, it argues that the annual yield-the huntable surplus-is the number of animals that can be taken without lowering the breeding populations for the following spring.
The Illinois research indicates that the annual harvest of bobwhite quail should be no more than fifty-five percent of the population present just before the hunting season. Quail are prolific breeders, but they can be over-harvested, and hunting regulations must take into account both the birds that are shot and those that will die of natural causes after the season closes.
Hypothetically, then, if we have an isolated population of quail that comprises
200 birds on opening day, the sustained-yield concept says that we can shoot
110 of them over the season. Some of the remaining ninety will die naturally
during the winter, but if the winter and breeding-season weather is normal and
the habitat is good, the population should be back to about 200 by the next
hunting season. Hunting, wildlife biologists now understand, can add to annual
quail mortality, not simply compensate the natural loss of individual birds.
Moreover, hunting has less impact early in the season, when quail are relatively
plentiful than it does m the late season; buds taken toward the end
of the season potentially reduce the breeding stock more than those harvested
earlier.
The bewildering aspect of sustained-yield management is in implementing it on a statewide basis. Fish and big game can be managed more easily because populations are more isolated and can therefore be readily identified and managed individually. To regulate quail harvest this way is impossible even regionally, much less over the entire state. Different areas have different habitat, different weather and varying degrees of hunting pressure. These variations, even from one county to the next, can be so dramatic that uniform regulations can result in over-harvest for one population while another, perhaps only a few miles away, is scarcely touched.
Simply making minor adjustments in season length and bag limit is not the answer. This rarely has any significant impact on spring breeding populations, as the potential benefits of a slightly shorter season or a slightly smaller bag limit are likely to be wiped out by extreme weather and by the continuing loss of habitat.
Unfortunately,
the effects of quail harvest lie in the hands of those who harvest them. Only
the quail hunter can decide when enough birds have been taken from his favorite
hunting spot. He knows his own hunting grounds better than any management agency
possibly could; he knows how many birds were there on opening day, and only
he can know when that population has been reduced enough. This, of course, is
an easier task on private land, where access is limited, than it is on public
areas, some of which receive considerable hunting pressure. Special regulations
on these areas may well be necessary. The notion that quail hunters are self-regulating
is true-for seventy or eighty percent of the quail-hunting fraternity. Still,
fully eighty percent of the quail harvested annually in Missouri are taken by
fewer than a third of the hunters. Season length and bag limits must strike
a balance between biology and sport. The continued survival of healthy quail
populations must take precedence over maximum hunting opportunity--and no hunter
who loves the bobwhite would have it any other way.
The Future - Quail For Tomorrow
POGO,
the sage 'possum of the funny papers, once observed: "We have met the enemy,
and he is us." He was talking about pollution, but the sentiment applies
equally well as a general view of man's relationship to the natural world. Certainly,
it is true of our relationship to wildlife. As with many other species, the
decline of bobwhite quail has been a consequence of our ever-increasing demand
for food, fiber and space. Missouri is neither an exception nor an isolated
case; farmland wildlife is declining all across America, and the common cause
unquestionably is the steady, widespread loss of habitat.
Quail populations can be rebuilt. Some ideas on how to do it are feasible; others are not, no matter how reasonable they seem at first glance.
For years there has been talk in Missouri of augmenting low quail populations by stocking. It seems an easy remedy, but like most quick fixes, stocking doesn't work. The main reason is habitat. If the habitat in a given area is so poor that wild quail can't live there, stocked quail obviously can't live their, either. Any birds released in such conditions are doomed from the start; without good protective cover, they're a virtual smorgasboard for predators, and without a combination of cover and food, any birds that do manage to avoid being eaten stand no chance at all of surviving the winter.
Other facts also argue against stocking. Stocked birds must come either from game farms or from the wild. Game-farm quail simply lack the skills for survival. Wild birds have to be live-trapped, and that is an extremely difficult, enormously expensive proposition. Stocking may seem a good idea in the local barbershop, but out in the boondocks, where quail live, it's a waste of time and money.
Artificial feeding during rough winters is another quick fix that's been talked around for years. Scattering some grain here and there may put some food into the bellies of a few birds-or it might not, since a half-inch of fresh snow or even a few good gusts of wind can cover it over in minutes. Even when it works perfectly, artificial feeding benefits only a minuscule fraction of the total quail population. At worst, it creates a false sense of accomplishment and merely clouds the real problem-dwindling habitat.
That there are no quick and easy remedies doesn't mean there are no remedies at all. Habitat can be improved and restored, and lots of help is available.
For many years, the Department of Conservation has assisted landowners who want more and better wildlife habitat. Department personnel will draw up wildlife-management farm plans, furnish seed for food plots and seedling trees and shrubs for wildlife cover plantings-all at no charge to landowners. Landowners who want to establish native-grass pastures or cover strips can get expert advice on how to do so and can even borrow from from the Department such specialized native-grass drills.
Your local conservation agent or Private Land Conservationist has information on these and other wildlife-management services available from the Department such specialized equipment as native grass drills.
A
research project to evaluate farm-management practices that enhance quail habitat
is now underway. The results will help both wildlife managers and landowners
make the most efficient use of land for crops, pastures and wildlife alike.
All suitable Department wildlife-management areas around the state will be intensively managed for quail, public and also will serve to demonstrate the kinds of quail habitat that can be established on private land.
The fate of Missouri quail depends entirely upon how Missouri farmland is managed. Quail-habitat management and productive farming are highly compatible, but there is no prescription for plenty without a change in attitude toward the land and a willingness to take marginal land out of crop production. Conservation programs included in the Federal Farm Bill show promise of helping both the agricultural community and wildlife, and the Department will work to ensure maximum wildlife benefits from this and other legislation.
A
covey of quail doesn't need much, but what it needs absolutely. Some relatively
minor changes in the way we manage land can make all the difference. What's
happened to bobwhite is everybody's problem and the solution well need everybody's
help - hunters, non-hunters, landowners and biologists alike. If we don't work
together, quail songs will grow faint and few. And if that happens, something
fine, something magical will be gone from Missouri.
