MULTISTATE ANALYSIS OF FIXED, LIBERAL REGULATIONS IN QUAIL HARVEST MANAGEMENT

We derived consequences (realizations of hunter efficiency, relative harvest rates) of fixed, liberal quail (northern bobwhite [Colinus virginianus], Gambel's quail [Callipepla gambelii], and scaled quail [C. squamata]) harvest regulations applied at large scales from time series on quail abund...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of wildlife management 2004-10, Vol.68 (4), p.1104-1113
Main Authors: GUTHERY, FRED S, PETERSON, MARKUS J, LUSK, JEFFREY J, RABE, MICHAEL J, DeMASO, STEPHEN J, SAMS, MIKE, APPLEGATE, ROGER D, DAILEY, THOMAS V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal populations
Birds
Bobwhites
Callipepla gambelii
Callipepla squamata
Colinus virginianus
CONTENTS
Depopulation
Fowling
Gambel's quail
Harvest
harvest management
hunter-days
Hunting
Hunting seasons
Linear transformations
northern bobwhite
Population growth rate
Quails
scaled quail
Wildfowl
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife management
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We derived consequences (realizations of hunter efficiency, relative harvest rates) of fixed, liberal quail (northern bobwhite [Colinus virginianus], Gambel's quail [Callipepla gambelii], and scaled quail [C. squamata]) harvest regulations applied at large scales from time series on quail abundance, total harvest, and hunter participation. Data came from Kansas (1966–2001), Missouri (1983–2001), Oklahoma (1990–2001), north and south Texas (1986–2001), and Arizona (1982–1999), USA, where harvest regulations were liberal (season length 2.5–4 months, daily bag limit 8–15 birds) during the periods of record. For all study regions, hunter-days were expressible as a linear function of quail abundance, and total harvest was expressible as a linear function of hunter-days. These results implied that hunter efficiency (harvest/hunter-day/index bird) declined monotonically and curvilinearly as quail populations increased. Likewise, relative harvest rate declined monotonically and curvilinearly as abundance increased, which implied that harvest was not self-limiting; however, the rate of decline generally was low because harvest rate was the product of an increasing (hunter-days) and a decreasing function (hunter efficiency) of quail abundance. Under fixed, liberal regulations, variations in quail abundance seem to govern harvest rates at the state or regional level; the regulations per se probably are biologically inconsequential.
ISSN:0022-541X
1937-2817
DOI:10.2193/0022-541X(2004)068[1104:MAOFLR]2.0.CO;2