A&M Bobwhite Quail/Fire Ant Master's Project, Final Update

[systemnt]

Neat study.
Picked a heck of time to study populations.. with the major decline being reported two years ago..and they relative resurrgence this past year.
Was there any information regarding quail populations in relevance to Roadrunner abundance? seen an explosion of beepbeeps during the decline stage..

[30-30]

Did you guys see any of the eyeworms in the quail that you checked? There seems to be a growing consensus that those parasites are greatly contributing to the quail declines in Texas and Oklahoma.

We didn't see any obvious eye worms in any of the birds we caught; granted we weren't closely examining their eyes. It's interesting stuff. My grad advisor's personal opinion is that the eye worms are a localized problem and aren't likely causing the state-wide decline.

[stinkbelly]

I bet you are glad to be done.

I remember one thing from defending my thesis. I remember thinking during it that if they make me do this again I am quitting. That was the worst beating of my life, but I graduated.

[Limbwalker]

Wish somebody would come up with a cure all for the ants, though!

There are some very intelligent people from UT working on the "cure all" for non-native fire ants. I met with them yesterday. Freakishly smart. Glad we have folks like them on the job.

If I had to guess - and it would just be a guess - I'd say that a loss of suitable habitat has contributed most to he decline in quail numbers across the U.S.

It's very easy to look across a sea of highly modified or non-native grasses and think there is "plenty" of quail habitat out there when in fact, there is not. It can be very misleading to the untrained eye.

For example, following decades of rice production, we have tens of thousands of acres of "pasture" that is almost completely sumpweed or exotic deep-rooted sedge in the West Houston/Katy area. Many people drive past those open areas of sumpweed and deep-rooted sedge and can't understand why there aren't more quail or other game birds there without realizing what they are looking at.

[IbeHuntn]

Congrats, where did that bird get the tiny headphones ?

[BHammock]

My in-laws built a house in Driftwood in the Rimrock subdivision. I was out there in April helping them move in. The following morning I was outside on the back patio drinking my coffee and listened to the bobwhites. Could not believe there were that many Bobwhites.

[buck_wild]

I was reading somewhere where they thought maybe some type of eye parasite was killing the quail? Any knowledge or thoughts on that ?

[Bobcat]

Congratulations, did you share this at the Corpus TCTWS convention in January? It's an interesting topic. So many factors at play concerning the fire ant, the bobwhite and their decline as well as local recoveries. Endless topics for discussion.