This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Georgia has been a destination for quail hunters for more than a century. But recent declines in its bobwhite population have researchers searching for answers to boost the popular game bird's numbers.
A new study from the University of Georgia suggests the birds' survival may depend on where they choose to roost. Unfortunately, they're not always very good at choosing ideal spots. The work is published in the journal Oecologia.
Northern bobwhite quail are native to the central and eastern U.S., ranging from Florida to Michigan to Texas. But they're difficult to spot and even more difficult to keep alive. "There's an old-timer saying: Bobwhite quail are good at doing one thing, and that's dying," said Justin Hill, corresponding author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in UGA's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
Georgia's bobwhite population has dropped by almost 90% since the 1960s, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, likely because the open, shrubby landscapes they depend on have become increasingly scarce. The researchers examined the birds' habitat choices and found that bobwhite with a stronger preference for woody cover were more likely to survive than the birds that roosted in less protected areas. Wildlife researchers use habitat preferences to guide decisions about which habitat types to protect or restore.
But an animal's preference for a specific habitat doesn't always show whether that habitat improves the animal's chances of surviving or reproducing. Researchers followed 169 radio-tagged bobwhite to 720 nighttime roosts over two fall and winter seasons in southern Indiana. They compared where the birds chose to sleep with the habitat available around them.
The birds largely preferred grasslands, areas that had recently been burned or otherwise cleared and were growing back, and spots near dense shrubs, briars and young trees, which the researchers refer to as woody cover. The researchers found birds that roosted in areas with abundant woody cover were about twice as likely to survive as birds that chose other roost sites. Despite its name, woody cover does not mean a forest.
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