[TN-Bird] Re: Trade 'em a big bear or a fat elk for quail
- From: "Roger Applegate" <Roger.Applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Roger Applegate" <Roger.Applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:40:15 -0600
Apologize to all, but there are some points in this discussion that are pretty
"hot button" for me because I have struggled with them for too many years and
they never go away. One is the concept of domestic birds and the other is trap
and transplant of bobwhite. Neither work. The science demonstrates that. Trap
and transplant requires more bobwhites that most people can imagine. For
example, Ohio has been trying to establish bobwhite on a large reclaimed strip
mine WMA for somewhere close to 20 years. To date I believe the total number of
WILD bobwhite they have trapped and moved from private land (nuclear power
plant) in KS is a minimum of 2,000. They still don't have a population and
after this winter's weather they may not have any. I consulted w/ them back in
1997 on this project because they were having problems. I can tell you that the
habitat on this area is A++ so it isn't the habitat. It's the sheer lack of
numbers of bobwhites per release. Kansas agency and its director committed
political suicide by permitting OH to do this on private land that is closed to
hunting. Even there, with a stable population and far higher density than
anywhere in TN, they are unable to trap enough bobwhites in a fall trapping
period to get critical mass. There's know way we can imagine building up enough
birds on any area in this state to trap and transfer.
The only way, based on my assessment of the last century's quail research is to
start where we have them and slowly and agonizingly build them outward across
as much landscape as we can. That's a slow process but the only one that will
work.
By the way, the ruffed grouse transplants to W TN were largely a dismal
failure. There are occasional reports of them but there still continues to be
no viable population. Same with W KY and S IL. Illinois, which has some of the
same habitat at we have in W TN has never established a population there; they
started in the 1930's. IN had a good population of grouse in the 50's-80' but
they have slowly declined and have all but crashed. where they had huntable
numbers in the 70's they have no more birds than we do; scattered reports.
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
=================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:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ARCHIVES
TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/
MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com
_____________________________________________________________
Other related posts:
