I pulled some of my notes out of "retirement" and took another look and here's what I'm seeing.
Remember what I said in my first post that the wildlife biology boys don't always agree on causes for the decline? Fireants point this out! The study that I thought originated out of Auburn was actually a study by the Texas Game Commission, and even here conflicting reports/opinions are given. One study gives mortality of young chicks at just under 2% which would be virtually nothing considering that pipping chicks are not going to be 100% healthy and strong. Another study gives the mortality at up around 70+%, but little is said about ground conditions, etc, things that might make a difference??? Likewise, a study done down in the central part of Florida by the state game commission shows mortality figures as high as 38%, yet other studies in the state show zero percent with no significant difference in numbers of fireant colonies present! The one study that I am most familiar with was done right here in north Florida less than a mile from my small farm, and believe me we are overrun with fireants! In this study the loss of chicks to fireants was zero. This study was done by Tall Timbers Research Station, a private non-governmental research station and one of the premier leaders in quail research and reasons for the declining numbers. So what is the main cause(s) of chick mortality if fireants aren't a major player as most of the expert research boys think? The Tall Timbers study probably sheds a lot of light on this. Very briefly:
A total of just over 140 video cameras were set up over this number of nests for three nesting seasons from, IIRC, 2008, 2009 & 2010...the study is just over. These cameras recorded 24 hours a day during the entire time the parent bird was sitting on the nest. Notice I said parent "BIRD"! Before this study it was unrecognized that the male bird incubates the eggs and protects the nest 'till the chicks hatch. The female will mate with a male, build a nest, lay eggs then she takes off to mate with another male and repeates the process. She may do this 3-4-5 times during the spring breeding/nesting season, and will keep her last nest for herself to prove that she is a good, carring mother! The photographed nest predators were also a great surprise.
Not a single nest-between 420 and 430 total-was lost to a coyote, fox, bobcat, feral cat, etc. (we have no feral hogs close by thank God!). The predators that we always thought of as being major destroyers aren't, and plenty of them are here in the study area. What destroyed the nests?
Armadillos, possums and coons took out about 45% of nests. Other small mammals, mice, field rats, mink, weasels took out another 10%, and non-poisonuous snakes ie Garter snakes, Rat snakes, Black snakes etc took out a whopping 45+%! The interesting thing about snake predation is that the snakes would locate a nest then monitor it daily waiting until the eggs started hatching before consuming the pipping chicks maximizing available food protein! (IMO,if you want to find the Creator, the Supreme Architect of the Universe, study Nature!)
This study opens up a whole new ball game in Bobwhite knowledge and management. It needs to be replicated over the entire range of the bird, however, before we can accept it as gospel in every respect. The study of predator/prey relationships is one of the most interesting that you can make, and it's also one of the least understood by most of us....just my thoughts right or wrong!
