Habitat Is Key
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After talking with a wildlife biologist, I made the decision to write the following instead of what I had planned. One thing in our conversation was the practice of banding quail. I have not promoted banding because I think it alters the quail's appearance. You are applying a flag that says, "Here I am. Come eat me," especially to avian predators. The biologist agreed with that observation with the exception of scientif studies. The issue of natural selection came up and in answer to my question, the biologist said, "There has not been enough studies on natural selection. We have no idea what happens from hatch to three or four weeks of a quail's age." I think this speaks volumes for what the studies have not done and leaves some studies suspect. I had concluded a long time ago that more chicks were not making it to four weeks of age than what some may think. By my work with quail on release sites, and also observing wild quail, I feel there are several issues in combination and orbit around habitat quality. First, let's squash some misinformation. Quail chicks are hatched with survival skills in place whether from artificial or natural incubation. We have done both using our breeder flock. Chicks incubated and hatched artifically are extremely hard to handle. They can jump out of a six-inch box, run fast and maneuver and hide. These chicks start to eat and drink immediately and dislike our presence and it shows. We have brooded with hens, in brooder houses, and in surrogators. We see no difference in chick's reaction either way. A setback to this is when inbreeding takes place. I have concluded that the chicks' built-in instincts will change if inbreeding is happening. Chicks do not need parents to provide anything but heat and shelter. After three weeks, they don't need the parents for anything. They may be left on their own. This is written in some of the studies. Studies suggest inbreeding may be a factor in the wild quail as quail become more isolated. Also, some groups will say the use of pen-raised birds spread disease. I wuld ask you to read an article on http://www.pubmed.gov/ entitled Health Status of Northern Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus) in east Kansas. This study was done in Lyon County, Kansas where the release of thousands of pen-raised quail has been taking place for years before this study was done. This study indicates that no diseases were present that would have come from pen-raised quail. Can these groups say without any doubt that all farm-raised quail have and spread disease? I doubt it. Studies also show that wild quail have diseases; viral, bacterial, protozoa, nematode, and parasites. There is no proof that early release from surogators have passed disease to any birds. Not all farmed quail are diseased, inbred or of poor quality. It is a mandate for certain groups to say that all farm quail are diseased. I would like to conclude in my observation and work that habitat will affect the survivability from other factors; environment, predators, and accident. To put environment into perspective for you, I will use human beings, human habitat and environment, and what the effects are. Human habitats, being our homes, are of different quality; poor, fair, good, and so on. Tornadoes come in to human habitat areas. The first habitat affected will be the poor. It will be destroyed by a near miss. Fair habitat will be much damaged but some structure still stands. Good habitat could be damaged extensively, but walls are still standing and safe areas of protection are not badly affected. Now, if there are occupants in all these habitats, the poor habitat will have the heaviest injury and loss of life. Loss and injury will reduce with the increased quality of habitat. There is a point where no habitat can survive. The better the habitat, the better chance for survival. The poor habitat will be the most damaged with weaker environmental incident. The loss of life in this situation is not natural selection. It is habitat and/or environment. Snow, rain, hail, wind, ice. Habitat will be affected differently by severity. The best can take the most until the severity reaches a point where it makes no difference. Where fire is concerned, the beter the habitat, the less damage. Habitat that reduces thatched matter, dead grass, and promotes more lush green vegetation, will reduce fire damage. But again, severity linked with drought is the point of no return. Losses from fire are not all natural selection. Predators are used to explain natural selection. Like environment, the loss to predators is not all natural selection. My observation and work has shown we are losing too many healthy quail to predators because of habitat quality. The predator/prey matrix is changing as habitat becomes more fragmented and of lesser quality. Both ground and avian predators know where they have the best availability of food. A top predator of young quail is snakes. They are attracted to areas that have good populations of rodents, thick thatched grass that rodents love to be in, piles of vegetation debris, undisturbed soil, will all attract mice and rats, and then in turn, bring the snakes. We have seen a black snake eat 15 quail eggs. We have seen a five-foot bull snake eat 22 eggs and another five-foot bull snake eat five three-week old quail. They are ambush experts. They can use their forked tongue and senses closing in on prey from over thirty feet away. They move unnoticed and then stretch their body to fit through a 3/4" hole with ease. Too many young birds are lost that could have been saved with simple management practices. Not all these losses are natural selection. Avian predators are attracted to areas for the same reason except that they use the bare ground under dense mid and late succession of woody growth. There has not been thinning to allow under-growth for needed quail cover. When birds are forced to move to those areas, they are all in high risk. A simple dead tree in the middle of quail habitat is nothing more than a predator perch. I have seen a hawk use this type of habitat and how successful they can be. I believe these losses could be reduced and natural selection is over used to explain this. All things suffer from accidents, from mowing and burning at early stages of chick growth, or a lightening strike. A tree falls on your head. If it can happen to you, it can happen to quail. It is not all natural selection. I could go on and on but there is no sense. You can go to my habitat photo page and see a state-owned public hunting area as a best example of how too many quail, pheasants, dove, or any bird can suffer heavy losses from all things associated with poor habitat. I have hunted this area since 1986 to the present time. After 1993, I noticed continual declines in quail populations, dove populations, and pheasant populations in this area. Fields that held pheasant and quail on edges had been extensively hayed. They cut down trees and piled them against other trees and travel lanes made impassable. There was no succession of grasses to early woody plants to mid-term woody plants. There is little forbes growth. The grass is thick, matted and being taken over with fescue grass. Cedar savannahs are taking over some areas. The trees and cedars that had been burned were left standing, making wonderful predator perches. There used to be good populations of quail, pheasant and dove, but even after every Tom, Dick and Harry walked that area, I was still able to find birds. I just had to work for them. During the 1996-1997 season, I found one covey of quail that were bottled up in a 15-acre area. Quail or pheasant, it doesn't make a difference. You can have a million breeds there, but they will not make it thruogh the predators and survive and to use natural selection to explain that away, leaves alot to be desired.
As I see it, researchers are separated on some key issues concerning habitat and numbers of quail within a habitat. One researcher says quail will move forty miles. The other says they don't migrate. The real fact is that habitat has turned into a patchwork that does not allow quail, or for that fact a multitude of wildlife, to survive. The land mass separation of good adjoining to poor habitat has removed the ability for quail to move to and from where other coveys live. Bloodline separation goes down and inbreeding goes up. Hard weather, lack of quality feed and cover, breeding and rearing areas all work against these birds and other wildlife. The lack of quality habitat increases all forms of predator success and before you know it, the quail are gone. I believe that improvements made may not cause a return of the birds to some areas. I have ask a question that I have not had a logical answer to yet. If I have habitat now and the only quail are located ten, fifteen, or twenty miles from my location will they repopulate my land? In communicating with one study group on the East Coast they had to move quail that distance to repopulate. Restoration programs under way by private land owners are making progress. They are leading the way. Land owners who had few or no quail are restoring the habitat and replenishing the quail. A few years ago a man asked me why the quail are gone from his land? I asked what type of habitat he had. The man said that nothing has changed in twenty years. I said that if you have done nothing in twenty years then the habitat has changed you just don't see the changes that occur over a long period of time. I still get this type of question from a lot of land owners. A good way to view this is by using old photographs of a area and looking at the same area now. Just see what five years can do to a habitat. Quail Restoration Technologies, First in a new series of Seven CD's, Habitat Management.Contact Jason at Jason@quailrestoration.com. Phone # (316) 200-0134 for details. Other subjects to come.Food Plots, Feeders, Evaluating your predator population, The Benefits of rag weed, Planting man-made hedge rows and Surrogate Propagation. For more information, contact us at |
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A paper I have read concerning a blue quail had telemetry collars applied and was found by a person studying this animal. It was buried in mud and with her were her brood of chicks. This cannot be considered natural selection. So was it lack of habitat and environment? Was it environment? Or was it an accident?