Quail Decline in Texas

This post is guest authored by Mariah Box, a sophomore wildlife and fisheries student at Texas A&M University and volunteer with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Wildlife and Fisheries unit.

          Texas is viewed as the last stronghold of wild quail hunting.  It is well known that quail populations across the state have been declining, and the drought in 2011 was a major blow to population numbers.  Although wild quail population numbers are on the rise this year, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Wildlife Specialist and Texas A&M professor Dr. Dale Rollins isn’t sure that the good weather will be enough to bounce quail numbers back from a 5-year decline. “There will be many ranches in the state that say, ‘Hey, we want to give our populations a break from hunting this year, we want to allow them to recover a little bit, and hopefully have good weather this year, so we have better breeding populations next spring. And then we’ll see a nice increase in our core population in the fall of 2013,’” Rollins told StateImpact Texas in a recent article that examined the issue. This article is very insightful and gives the reader a glimpse into Dr. Rollins’ extensive research. 

          Thankfully, I have been able to experience some of that research firsthand. I was blessed with the opportunity to intern for Dr. Rollins this summer on the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch in Fisher County where he serves as Executive Director.  The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch is dedicated to preserving and enhancing quail populations in the Rolling Plains of north Texas. The idea of the ranch was first conceived by a group of bobwhite hunters after a successful hunt. These hunters had a simple wish to continue doing what they loved, hunting quail. They realized that in order to continue to be able to hunt they needed to take action. Bobwhite populations had already been depleted further to the east and they knew that it was only a matter of time before the same thing happened in the west. With the help of The Conservation Fund, the Research Ranch was built on a 4,700-acre ranch in Fisher County with the purpose of preserving the heritage of bobwhite hunting in the rolling plains. Their mission statement, “To provide land managers, and other stakeholders, with timely, relevant technology and management schemes for enhancing quail populations in the Rolling Plains of Texas. To sustain Texas' wild quail hunting heritage for this and future generations.” demonstrates what wildlife management should look like at its core. Wildlife management is all about proper land stewardship. Managing populations so that they neither become too large or too small. The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch does just this through their research. They develop the best techniques for land management that will benefit quail populations by enhancing the habitat.

While the main cause of population decline is believed to be due to habitat loss and fragmentation, Dr. Rollins and the RPQRR staff are also looking into other potential sources for the problem.  They have discovered both an eye worm and a cecal worm in wild quail populations across Texas. Operation Idiopathic Decline, or OID, is the manifestation of these discoveries. OID is a biannual trapping effort on several ranches across the western and southern regions of the state. Oral, tracheal, and cloacal swabs are taken randomly from trapped birds. Blood, feather, and stool samples are also taken from the birds. One in every three birds is harvested for testing purposes. The remaining quail are released back into the wild. Mosquito and tick traps are also set out at each trapping site. All of the samples and data gathered at each site are then transported to Texas Tech University where they are tested for a variety of parasites and diseases. This is a massive ongoing project requiring the cooperation and collaboration of various land owners, Texas Tech University, and the staff at the RPQRR.  

            Although it is true that quail population numbers are declining, rest assured that they are getting great help from some amazing people. If you are interested in learning more about the RPQRR, visit their website at http://www.quailresearch.org/. Dr. Rollins also sends out a monthly e-Newsletter that you can sign up for from the RPQRR homepage.  You can also find RPQRR on Facebook and Twitter.