Quail Guard

[CreekGeek]

Bunch grasses are gone from most of our habitat. Pine plantations provide no cover. We nuke every insect in crops. Fire ants are hell. Hawks are like jihadists. There are a ton of reasons. I think we need more diversity in our landscapes, more fire.

Hit the nail on the head. Close the thread.

[swampknob]

New podcast on Meateater with Dr. Ronald Kendall that dives into this subject. Dr. Kendall is from Florence and has done some good work in Texas.

https://wildlifetoxicologylab.org/

[Palmetto Bug]

I'm not sure how to interpret the discovery of the parasites that are decimating the quail populations. Will wild quail only survive if they have had a chance to feed on the fortified medicated food? Can the parasite threat ever be reduced or eliminated for untreated birds? Will the existence of huntable populations depend on inoculating birds in perpetuity?

I thrilled they have found the source of the problem and have developed a treatment but still wonder if the solution can be scaled enough to make a permanent difference.

Is the eye worm a danger to other bird species?

[Catdaddy]

I hope it works and was the problem for SC birds.

When they tell you it's habitat,....that's code for we don't have a clue for the real reason.

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[LabLuvR]

Had a fellow up here in Newberry said he saw the biggest covey of quail has seen in a decade.

[Southernduck]

I hope it works and was the problem for SC birds.

When they tell you it's habitat,....that's code for we don't have a clue for the real reason.

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

Or code for its a lot of reasons. I have the same fear that PB is talking about. I see a lot of anecdotal evidence to support theories like that.

I will say we are seeing more wild coveys and we arent spending a fortune manicuring a place, in fact quite the opposite. We are planting food and leaving cover. I have found that what man considers beautiful habitat and what wildlife considers a good place to be are often not the same.

[bigtimeduckhunter]

Had a fellow up here in Newberry said he saw the biggest covey of quail has seen in a decade.

I was sitting in a deer stand last week and watched 25-30 run across the food plot

[Slaya]

I've been fortunate to see and have access to some properties where folks are working incredibly hard and spending incredible resources to improve habitat and foster wild quail. They are largely finding success, with highly regimented burn rotations, open canopy pine forests, strategically placed ragweed and brood plots, predator trapping, and supplemental feed placed into cover. The effects are also boosting other species such as rabbit, turkey, and deer populations on these same properties. We've started down this path on a smaller property that still has a couple coveys, in hopes of helping what we have.

[Duck Nitz]

I've been fortunate to see and have access to some properties where folks are working incredibly hard and spending incredible resources to improve habitat and foster wild quail. They are largely finding success, with highly regimented burn rotations, open canopy pine forests, strategically placed ragweed and brood plots, predator trapping, and supplemental feed placed into cover. The effects are also boosting other species such as rabbit, turkey, and deer populations on these same properties. We've started down this path on a smaller property that still has a couple coveys, in hopes of helping what we have.

if you have a lot of adjacent property that is similar to it that isn't going to be commercially farmed (or worse, developed), you should have better-than-average results. Good Luck!

[Fireman]

I'm not sure how to interpret the discovery of the parasites that are decimating the quail populations. Will wild quail only survive if they have had a chance to feed on the fortified medicated food? Can the parasite threat ever be reduced or eliminated for untreated birds? Will the existence of huntable populations depend on inoculating birds in perpetuity?

I thrilled they have found the source of the problem and have developed a treatment but still wonder if the solution can be scaled enough to make a permanent difference.

Is the eye worm a danger to other bird species?

What he said on the podcast was that the medicated feed reduces the rate year to year. If less birds are infected, less infected feces dropped by birds, less insects that feed on the infected feces, the less chance of re-infection on the birds who eat the insects.

He explained that over a 5 year study they went from 90% 1 year mortality to around 30% by this theory.

[Palmetto Pride]

I would really like this to work.

My old man said he would trade it all to get them back….

[willk]

Didn't some people out wast start actively tageting and spraying to try and control the insect that was causing this chain?

[swampknob]

I find the topic interesting so will keep posting info as I come across it:

RPQRF Quail Technician, Luna Li, has an update on a current research project at RPQRF “Studying the Potential Effect of Medicated Feed Use on Decreasing Parasite Loads in Quail”. Hunters have been sending in quail samples for Luna to dissect, she has a freezer full of birds! She currently has dissected 49 birds from a single property in Cottle County, TX that has NOT been feeding the medicated feed. Here are some preliminary results: of 49 birds, 39 birds (79%) had eye worms and the maximum number of eye worms found in a single bird was 48, of 45 birds sampled for cecal worms, of those, 100% had cecal worms, and the maximum number of cecal worms found in a single bird was 473! The average eye worm count was 7.6 per bird and the average cecal worm count is 149.3 per bird. Of the birds that have been dissected, 75.51% of them were juveniles (37 out of 49) while 24.49% were adults (12 out of 49). When it comes to the eye worm parasite load, juveniles currently have a lower average (6.081 worms per bird, n=37) than the adults (12.5 worms per bird, n=12). However, for the intestinal cecal worm load, juveniles currently have a higher average (153.182 worms per bird, n=33) than the adults (138.667 worms per bird, n=12). This descriptive analysis has not been vetted for statistical significance; these are just the preliminary results with small sample sizes and are subject to change as more birds are dissected.
If you are curious about parasite loads of quail on your property, send us some samples! We are looking for birds on properties that are feeding the medicated feed and properties that are not feeding it.

[Palmetto Bug]

Thanks for posting the update.

[CreekGeek]

Here’s some more discussion on it.