Page 4
February 11, 2011
Lone✯Star Outdoor News
LSONews.com
HUNTING
Diseases may be culprits in quail losses By Bill Miller
struck by Rollins’ findings. “Basically,” Dabbert explained, “there have been a lot of landowners Veteran quail hunters used to be and some people on Dale’s board who great examples of optimism. had populations of quail in the fall — They’ve long known that robust and then they didn’t. populations of quail follow boom“And because they had decent rainand-bust cycles that depend on hab- fall in the spring, some people were itat. Wet years, like 2010, have coin- expecting more of a boom than what cided with a rebound in populations. they got. So that is a concern.” But hunters in West Texas are disBut the research ranch and Quail Tech appointed that they haven’t seen Alliance are not working in vacuums. bunches of new coveys of bobwhites In late January they joined the Caesar during the four-month upland game Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at season, which wraps up on Feb. 27. Texas A&M-Kingsville for a meeting in And some of these hunters are Sweetwater to discuss quail diseases. reporting an alarming trend, said Rollins called the participants the Dr. Dale Rollins, director of the “big three” in quail research, but other Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch experts also attended. near Roby in Fisher County. They came from Texas A&M They will see their dogs go on University, Texas Parks and Wildlife point, but nothing flushes. Then Department and the Oklahoma they’ll find the Department of bird that was givWildlife Conservation ing scent — dead, and Audubon Texas. with no marks from Rollins called this a predator’s fangs, consortium “Operation just dead. Ideopathic Decline.” “For years,” Ideopathic, he said, Rollins said, “we’ve is a medical term that been stressing habisimply means, “The tat, habitat, habitat. doctors don’t know.” If we build it, they By meeting regularly will come. to share information, “In other words, the members hope if it rains, we have they’ll zero in on the quail. Well, we’ve disease hypothesis. had rain and we But Dabbert warned don’t. against ignoring other “Something is hapreasons for less quail. pening outside the ■ If while cleaning No one, so far, is backhabitat-precipitation harvested quail you notice ing off the belief that paradigm.” something strange like urbanization and overRollins said he is at spots on its liver or hemorgrazing have swept away a loss to explain what rhaging around the heart, native grasses that quail that is. the bird might be diseased. need to thrive. But Rollins and If so, researchers at Texas “One thing that conother quail researchcerns me is seeing verTech University may want ers are taking a new biage like ‘smoking to examine it. To learn how look at disease. gun,’” Dabbert said. “I to ship the bird to Tech, For example, Rollins don’t know if we’ll find a call (806) 885-4567. said the research single smoking gun. ranch is looking at the “One of my greatest possibility of avian fears is that some people will let the peninfluenza in quail. He also noted the work last fall dulum swing so far that we will forget to of the Quail Tech Alliance at Texas keep looking at habitat.” Rollins agreed. Tech University, which last fall dis“The smoking gun, most likely, has covered a scaled quail with antibodmore than one cylinder,” he said. “It is ies that fight West Nile Virus. The Lubbock-based researchers not a muzzleloader.” But to say there are no quail whatproved that the little bird had, at some soever is not true. With about half a point, come in contact with WNV. That was in October, and simi- month of season left, hunters can find lar discoveries have been made in coveys on ranches that have managed another scaled quail and a bob- for quail, Dabbert said. For example, Sam McAlexander of white, said Dr. Brad Dabbert, Quail Amarillo, who manages hunting operTech’s leader. The alliance, which is about a year ations in the Panhandle, reported good old, also found Newcastle disease in activity the last weekend of January. “I found four coveys that averaged quail, and now the researchers are looking for signs of fowl cholera, about 16 birds each in less than an hour,” he said, “so I am very encourDabbert said. But the researchers have been aged about this year’s bird hunting.”
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FACT BOX
QUAIL QUANDARY: Researchers like Kurt Huffman, above, of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, Texas Tech University and others have formed a consortium to look at diseases in quail. They wonder if West Nile Virus and Newcastle disease are contributing to smaller populations of bobwhite and blue quail. Photo by Lone Star Outdoor News.
Pronghorn relocation effort reaches fund-raising goal An iconic species of the Trans-Pecos region soon will get a boost when 200 Panhandle pronghorn are released onto the Marfa Plateau in late February, thanks to West Texas conservationists. The initial Pronghorn Restoration Benefit held Jan. 29 at the Granada Theatre in Alpine raised more than $50,000 to match a challenge grant from the Dixon Water Foundation and The Horizon Foundation. The $100,000 was needed to fund the project that will trap 200 pronghorn antelope in the Panhandle and transport to them to the Trans-Pecos.
“The benefit was a huge success,” said Dr. Louis Harveson, professor of Natural Resource Management and director of the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University. Harveson is also a member of the TransPecos Pronghorn Working Group. “The challenge grant the Dixon Water Foundation and The Horizon Foundation provided really helped propel our fund-raising efforts,” he said. “We were able to meet that $50,000 challenge which will net us an additional $50,000 from the foundations. “If everything goes well, we will release another 200 pronghorn in 2012.” More than 300 people attended the event in Alpine. “Everyone came together to help return this iconic species to the grasslands,” Harveson said. “I am proud to be a part of it.” —Staff report
COMEBACK: Thanks to the efforts of concerned conservationists, 200 pronghorn will be moved from the Panhandle to the area around Marfa in an effort to repopulate its native range. Photo by LSON.