On Some Founding Ideas of Quailology and Their Propounders

Powerful ideas in quailology affect thinking over generations, even if the ideas are wrong. I discuss great ideas put forth by Aldo Leopold, Herbert Lee Stoddard, and Paul Lester Errington and comment on aspects of their personalities. Leopold, an extraordinarily good father, posited the Law of Dispersion (Interspersion), which became known as the Principle of Edge. The Law is a tautology that can be paraphrased ‘edge-obligate animals require edge.’ Leopold observed the ‘law’ held ‘within ordinary limits,’ which he did not define but which could mean ‘within compositionally simple landscapes.’ As a child, Stoddard, who dropped out of high school to support his family, recognized the value of fire in northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) habitat management in the Southeast; later he came to see tenant farming (patchwork agriculture) set up conditions favorable to northern bobwhites. Stoddard was given to after- the-fact hypothesis formulation (retroduction) on the causes of events he observed. Through this logically weak process he bequeathed many ‘facts’ that are really untested hypotheses. Errington, an apparent loner who survived polio as a child, had 2 great ideas. The Threshold of Security was a fairly constant spring density which implied harvest up to a certain level is fully compensatory (doomed- surplus model). The Principle of Inversity implies that relative productivity declines as breeding density increases. Errington’s own work refuted the doomed-surplus model because he could not have simultaneously observed a constant breeding population and inversity, which requires a variable breeding population. These great founding ideas, although not without flaw, arose through observation of nature and thought, not through null hypothesis significance testing and model selection

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eIt’s a Long Way from Llano: The Journey of a Wildlife Biologist\u3c/i\u3e By James G. Teer

The book has eleven chapters. Subject matter includes biography (he had a deadbeat dad), commentary, philosophy, and natural history. The biography will be fascinating to those of us who know Teer and worked under or with him. The national and international conservation issues—buck-only harvest, great cats, saiga antelope, wildlife management in Africa— will appeal to a more general audience. Teer aims the book at university students in wildlife conservation and management; his experiences and commentary certainly will be useful and informative to this audience

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eIt’s a Long Way from Llano: The Journey of a Wildlife Biologist\u3c/i\u3e By James G. Teer

The book has eleven chapters. Subject matter includes biography (he had a deadbeat dad), commentary, philosophy, and natural history. The biography will be fascinating to those of us who know Teer and worked under or with him. The national and international conservation issues—buck-only harvest, great cats, saiga antelope, wildlife management in Africa— will appeal to a more general audience. Teer aims the book at university students in wildlife conservation and management; his experiences and commentary certainly will be useful and informative to this audience

Theory of the Hunter-Covey Interface

We established mathematical models and explored the role of a learned response (avoidance behavior) to understand and manage the hunter-covey interface. Furthermore, we examined the dynamic nature of the probability of flush, given encounter, in a population that learned to avoid hunters as time passed. Learning rate was defined as the proportion of a covey that leaves the naive population and enters the experienced population per unit of hunter-covey contact. The conditional probability of flushing and shooting at a covey, given a covey encounter, declined through the season. This is because the probability of flushing was lower for experienced than for naive coveys and the population of experienced coveys grew with exposure. Thus, quality of hunting declined at a faster rate than quail population; i.e., birds became more wary as the hunting season progresses. The birds\u27 ability to avoid hunters provided an explanation of the sudden reappearance of bobwhites contributing to reproduction in areas where hunters were unsuccessful the previous hunting season. Management can use our models to manipulate the interface and obtain a desired population following the hunting season

Bird Use of Bobwhite Brush Shelters on a Conservation Reserve Program Field

Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) are known to use constructed brush shelters. The establishment of artificial shelters is a common practice in grasslands where woody cover is lacking. We evaluated the use of brush shelters by bobwhite and other bird species in a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) field. Twenty-seven species of birds were observed at brush shelters versus 10 species at control sites. No species occurred exclusively at control sites. Brush shelters in CRP had positive effects on avian communities by providing sites for vocalizing, prey search, loafing, and nesting

Exploration of intergenerational transmission of trauma in Holocaust survivors

This study was undertaken to help resolve current debate in the field as to whether or not the traumatic effects of the Holocaust are transmitted intergenerationally. What was preventing or, conversely, enabling the passage of symptomatology from one generation to the next, thereby accounting for the contradiction in research, and clinicians’ observations during their work with Holocaust families? Over 200 people received the study through social media and snowball sampling requesting participation in a Qualtrics survey consisting of 3 screening questions, 5 demographic questions, 4 sections of multiple-choice questions, and 2 open-ended questions. The four sections assessed parental PTSD symptomatology, attachment, psychological and social impacts on the children of Holocaust survivors, and community support. The findings of this research confirmed previous studies that parental Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology is more than likely related to offspring adverse psychological and social impacts. Results also support that those children whose parents show high levels of PTSD, and who experience certain psychological and social troubles tend to have an anxious attachment style with their parent. Finally, findings show children of Holocaust survivors characteristically feel driven to undo and heal their caregiver\u27s trauma by defending their caregivers from emotional and social injury. Results that were not significant are discussed along with limitations to this investigation, and suggestions for further research are outlined

Introduction to and Screening Visit Results of the Multicenter Pediatric Crohn's Disease Growth Study.

BackgroundStatural growth impairment is more common in males with Crohn's disease (CD). We assessed sex differences in height Z score differences and bone age (BA) Z scores and characterized age of menarche in a novel contemporary cohort of pediatric CD patients undergoing screening for enrollment in the multicenter longitudinal Growth Study.MethodsCrohn's disease patients (females with chronological age [CA] 5 years and older and younger than 14 years; males with CA 6 years and older and younger than 16 years) participated in a screening visit for the Growth Study. Height BA-Z scores are height Z scores calculated based on BA. Height CA-Z scores are height Z scores calculated based on CA. The height Z score difference equals height CA-Z score minus height BA-Z score.ResultsOne hundred seventy-one patients (60% male) qualified for this analysis. Mean CA was 12.2 years. Mean height CA-Z score was -0.4, and mean height BA-Z score was 0.4 in females. Mean height CA-Z score was -0.1, and mean height BA-Z score was 0.2 in males. The absolute value of the mean height Z score difference was significantly greater in females (0.8) than males (0.3; P = 0.005). The mean BA-Z score in females (-1.0) was significantly lower than in males (-0.2; P = 0.002). The median CA at menarche was 13.6 (95% CI, 12.6-14.6) years.ConclusionsOur screening visit data suggest that standardized height gain is lower in males with skeletal maturation and delayed puberty is common in females in CD. We are investigating these findings in the ongoing Growth Study

Long-Term Climate Trends and Northern Bobwhite Populations in South Texas

Because climate change and its associated weather changes may influence population trends of birds, we analyzed northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; bobwhite hereafter) age ratios and abundance in relation to climate trends during 1908-1997 in south Texas. Weather variables included regional mean temperature maxima for June, July, and August, and precipitation totals for autumn (Sep-Nov), winter (Dec-Feb), spring (Mar-May), and summer (Jun-Aug). Long-term temporal trends for these weather variables were estimated with a linear regression. Yearly weather data were used to predict bobwhite age ratios (juv/ad in autumn and winter) and abundance between 1908 and 1997 using neural network models. We compared these predictions with data available from various bobwhite surveys in south Texas over the period 1940-1999. Means for daily maximum temperature during summer declined at rates between 1.6 and 2.3°C/century. No temporal trends were detected for seasonal precipitation (1908-1997), age ratios (1940-1999), or abundance (1977-1998). Neural models developed independently to predict bobwhite age ratios and bobwhite abundance from weather data produced predictions that were consistent with each other. Years with high age ratios tended to coincide with or precede years of high abundance

Usable Space Versus Food Quantity in Bobwhite Habitat Management

We studied the response of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) foods (plants and invertebrates), usable space, and populations following thinning and burning on the 60,000-ha pine (Pinus spp.)-grassland restoration area in the Ouachita National Forest, Arkansas, to examine 2 hypotheses commonly used to manage bobwhite habitat: 1) usable space (suitable permanent cover) and 2) food quantity (an element of habitat quality). We estimated invertebrate food abundance using sweep nets and abundance of food-producing plants using herbaceous and woody stem counts. The disk of vulnerability was used to index usable space. We used whistling-male counts to index population response. Relative abundance, mass, and frequency of occurrence of invertebrate foods and richness, density, and frequency of occurrence of bobwhite food-producing plants increased following thinning and fire. Relative abundance of whistling males was greatest in thinned stands 3 growing seasons post-burn and in thinned but unburned stands. We found food supply was related to usable space following treatment. However, food abundance alone did not explain bobwhite population response, whereas, usable space was predictive for bobwhite response. By comparing treated stands with similar usable space but different food quantity, we observed no differences in bobwhite abundance. Neural models suggested bobwhite population response was less sensitive to changes in food supply relative to changes in usable space. We recommend that managers should seek first to provide usable space (suitable permanent cover in low basal area stands), recognizing that adequate food supply will likely be a side effect of management to this end