Oklahoma Quail Mortality Info

[Quillback]

Just got this info in an email from the ODFW - If you're interested you can go to their website and sign up to receive upland bird updates via email. I've been thinking about heading over to western OK one of these years and hunting the WMA's. They're a bit high on the non-res small game license, $155 or so which is one reason why I've never done it.

Quail research ongoing as data continues to mount

Biologists continue to evaluate northern bobwhite quail on western Oklahoma wildlife management areas.

The tools and technology being used by biologists is allowing for up-to-date research and tracking opportunities. Each report from research being conducted on western Oklahoma WMAs adds to a growing database of information that researchers hope will bring about increased insight into the movements and mortality of quail across their home range.

According to the January report of the Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, researchers on the Beaver WMA have 56 birds "on the air," or birds that are being tracked via telemetry. Of those birds, 31 are bobwhites and 25 are scaled quail. During late December and early January, 31 losses were recorded. Of those, 11 were due to mammalian predation; nine were unknown; six were due to avian predation; four were due to collar failure; and one bird was harvested. Weather may potentially impact quail at Beaver WMA, since about 12 inches of snow has been on the ground since the end of January. To date, researchers have collected over 100 wings from harvested birds via the wing collection boxes, suggesting that hunter effort and success increased compared to last year. Radio-tracking of birds continues.

On Packsaddle WMA, researchers are currently tracking 52 bobwhite quail. During January, 18 radio-collared bobwhites were lost. Of those, eight were attributed to raptor predation; two to mammalian predation; three to unknown predation; three to either unknown predation or collar failure; and two to harvest. Thirty-three wings were collected from harvested bobwhites. Of those, 15 were juvenile males, two were adult males, 14 were juvenile females, and two were adult females. Radio-tracking for the purpose of monitoring bobwhite movement is ongoing.

Genetics research continues on Packsaddle WMA Lab analysis of northern bobwhite samples has been completed, and researchers are currently waiting for some scaled quail samples to arrive. They anticipate that the scaled quail primers will be developed within the month and that analysis of those samples will follow. A paper titled "Extra-pair paternity, intra-specific nest parasitism, and brood amalgamation in northern bobwhite" was presented at the Joint Annual Meeting of Oklahoma Chapters of The Wildlife Society and Society for Range Management in January.