[TN-Bird] Re: Northern Bobwhites
- From: "Roger Applegate" <Roger.Applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <hatcher2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,<tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:01:36 -0600
Bob makes some very good points. Genetics, as I indicated in the earlier post,
is a problem relative to introgression with domestics. Also, certainly
genetics may play some role in smaller more isolated populations although data
to date would suggest they become extinct before any significant reduction in
genes occurs. However, IF we assumed that we had a place where sufficient
habitat was available to sustain a sizeable population the problems would be:
1. all work to date with using wild transplants indicates that in any given
area it requires literally releases of thousands of bobwhites to achieve
success. We simply do not have enough places left in TN where the thousands can
come from except the chicken coops at Ames or other commercial breeders of
domestics. Won't solve our problem at all.
2. Bobwhites are on the decline everywhere and even where the thousands of
birds could be had (KS, NE, TX, OK), there's no way they will let us have them.
AT ANY COST.
Roger D. Applegate
Small Game Coordinator
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Ellington Agricultural Center
PO Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
PH: 615/781-6616
FAX: 615/781-6654
Email: roger.applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx
UPS Address: 440 Hogan Road
Nashville, TN 37220
FedEx Address: 5107 Edmonson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211
>>> "Bob Hatcher" <hatcher2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 01/20/09 6:47 PM >>>
Fellow Tennessee Birders,
Thanks for all the discussions concerning the alarming decline of Northern
Bobwhites in Tennessee and elsewhere. I believe many factors have been
correctly described. I am not a bobwhite expert, but it sometimes pays to
"think outside the box" of the conventional wisdom of any specialty. I have
wondered for several years if we have reached a point where lack of genetic
diversity has become another serious factor, and possibly the most delimiting
one of all in the decline of bobwhites.
By the early 1980's, we at TWRA's Endangered Species program were quite
concerned that Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) colonies had already reached
alarmingly low populations. Loss of habitat was considered the major cause of
their decline. The RCW experts advised at a Southeastern RCW conference that
RCW populations are considered "past the point of no return" whenever local
colonies contain less than about 50 individuals. This was stated to be due to
in-breeding and resulting lack of genetic diversity in smaller populations.
Like bobwhites, RCW's are not migrants and therefore have little or no
opportunity for genetic mixing with more distant populations. We therefore
sought to transfer RCW's from more higher populations in other states. All
potential recipient sites were rated on the basis of likely success.
Tennessee's habitat was not rated as highly as that of other states. Finally,
the US Fish and Wildlife Service yielded to pressure from a conservation
organizat
ion. Two female RCW's were then transplanted, one at a time, from the Florida
Panhandle to Tennessee's last dwindling RCW population on U.S. Forest lands of
Polk County, TN. Each successive transplant was unsuccessful, and Tennessee's
last lonely male RCW was last seen there in December of 1994.
It has been repeatedly shown that pen-raised bobwhites have only short-term
survival in the wild. However, it seems to me that it would be worth exchanging
significant number of transplants from different states and/or areas to
determine if the bobwhite off-spring might develop greater genetic diversity
and demonstrate better survival than other populations. I have discussed this
to a limited degree with bobwhite biologists and understand that bobwhite
researchers have considered genetic diversity to be a possible factor. Perhaps
such research is already proposed or underway. In any case, I hope that
significant transplants can be interchanged at enough sites that the relative
survival of transplant and non-transplant sites can be statistically analyzed.
I believe it also desirable that hunting be permitted and prohibited on an
equally large number of these research areas until the results can be
statistically analyzed. I recommend that this approach be given serious co
nsideration by bobwhite researchers and managers, with implementation before
our bobwhites follow the example of our last lonely RCW.
Bob Hatcher
Eagle Consultant, American Eagle Foundation, and
Retired Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Coordinator (1978-2001),
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Brentwood, TN
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send email to:
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with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
Cleveland, OH
-------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
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ARCHIVES
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Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com
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