Triple Brood Production by Northern Bobwhites

Most aspects of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) life history are well understood and well documented, including their ability to ‘‘double brood’’ (defined as the same hen successfully hatching 2 broods during a single nesting season). Less understood are the ability and/or prevalence of ‘‘triple broods’’ in the life history of bobwhites. Occasional citing in the literature of triple brooding is often unclear as to whether reference is being made to the attempt at hatching 3 broods in a season or actually doing so. This confusion stems from the interchanging use of the words brood and clutch. While Webster defines ‘‘clutch’’ as either 1) a nest of eggs, or 2) a brood of chicks; ‘‘brood’’ is clearly defined as a group of birds hatching at one time. A closer look at the referenced studies reveals incidences of ‘‘triple clutching’’ where a single hen incubated three nests in one summer, but no published record of a true triple brood. The strict definition of triple brood should be: the same hen successfully hatching 3 broods in a single nesting season. Our nest data from radio-tagged birds collected in the Albany, GA area suggest that this phenomenon is extremely rare. From 1992-2016 we radio-tagged and monitored 2,607 hens during the nesting season on our primary study area in Baker County, GA. These birds produced 1,463 incubated nests and hatched 768 broods. Double broods were fairly common (n = 91) and occurred in all but two of the 25 nesting seasons. Only one incidence of true triple brooding has been documented on this study area during this time period. Adult mortality, nest loss, and the limited duration of the nesting season all work against this level of production. While an interesting aspect of the bird’s natural history, the extremely low rate of occurrence makes it insignificant from a population standpoint

A Comparative Review of Dimension Reduction Methods in Approximate Bayesian Computation

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) methods make use of comparisons between simulated and observed summary statistics to overcome the problem of computationally intractable likelihood functions. As the practical implementation of ABC requires computations based on vectors of summary statistics, rather than full data sets, a central question is how to derive low-dimensional summary statistics from the observed data with minimal loss of information. In this article we provide a comprehensive review and comparison of the performance of the principal methods of dimension reduction proposed in the ABC literature. The methods are split into three nonmutually exclusive classes consisting of best subset selection methods, projection techniques and regularization. In addition, we introduce two new methods of dimension reduction. The first is a best subset selection method based on Akaike and Bayesian information criteria, and the second uses ridge regression as a regularization procedure. We illustrate the performance of these dimension reduction techniques through the analysis of three challenging models and data sets.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-STS406 the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Co-branding hotel owners and operators to increase willingness to pay

Although hotel brands are well established in the industry, customers have not been educated about the different kinds of properties, nor has hotel  structure been utilised as a functional marketing tool. Drawing on previous studies, the purpose of this study is to evaluate consumer branding  preferences and willingness to pay because of co-branding and informed ownership, operational, or franchise branding. This two-part study looks at  consumer awareness and consumer preferences in the first part through semi-structured interviews, and in the second part, an experimental survey.  Results reveal that most travellers do not understand the difference between a corporate-owned and -managed hotel and a franchised hotel. Co-  branding efforts for management and ownership companies were not significant in both value perceptions and willingness to pay. However, co-branding  efforts by ownership companies with parent companies increased their guests’ willingness to pay

Hunting Success on Albany, Georgia Plantations: The Albany Quail Project\u27s Modern Quail Management Strategy

The Albany Quail Project began in March 1992 as a cooperative between Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and the private quail plantation community surrounding Albany, Georgia. The goal of this collaboration was to increase population densities and hunting success of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on these properties. Issues important to the plantations were investigated via field research techniques (e.g. radio-telemetry) and then modifications in management regimes were put into practice. From 1992-2006 over 8,000 wild bobwhites were radio-tagged to study various demographic and population mechanism of bobwhites. The result has been a change in management style based on science creating the concept of Modern Quail Management (MQM) techniques. Bobwhite population densities and hunting success during the last decade on these properties have been higher and more stable than witnessed during any previous period in their history. On our primary study site during 1980-1996 the average number of coveys seen per hour was 3.9 (SE = 0.265) with a range of 2.7 - 6.5 (CV = 0.28). Following the implementation of MQM techniques this average during 1997-2005 increased to 7.7 (SE = 0.317) with a range of 6.9-9.7 (CV = 0.12) and population density has been maintained at or near 5 birds per ha. This manuscript provides a brief history of the Albany Quail Project, describes how results from these studies have contributed to the evolution of new management philosophies over the last decade, outlines what these changes have been, and describes how they have been successfully applied on numerous properties in the Albany area to improve bobwhite populations and hunting success

Effect of Field Trials on Northern Bobwhite Survival and Hunt Quality on Dixie Plantation

The potential negative effects of horseback field trials on survival and post trial hunting quality of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) have long been debated. Recent acquisition of Dixie Plantation (3,650 ha) by Tall Timbers Research Station provided a unique opportunity to evaluate this interaction as Dixie has been home to the Continental Field Trial since 1937. We monitored radio-tagged bobwhites annually (n = 183; ~20 coveys during fall/winter) on a core study area (640 ha) upon which a portion of the field trial was conducted during January 2015 & 2016. We estimated Kaplan-Meier survival of radio-tagged bobwhites on Dixie before, during, and after the field trial event as well as compared seasonal survival to bobwhite (N = 387) on nearby Tall Timbers Research Station (1,570 ha) during the same time period. Additionally, we recorded the number of coveys seen, coveys pointed, and shots fired during each half-day hunt (n = 133) to evaluate hunt quality before and after the field trial. Bobwhite survival on Dixie was similar (P\u3e0.05) during the two weeks prior to (0.89, SE = 0.026), during (0.93, SE = 0.023), and after (0.92, SE = 0.026) the field trial for the two years combined, as were seasonal survival curves between the two study sites for both years monitored. No differences (P\u3e0.05) were observed in the number of coveys seen per half day hunt before (X = 11.78, SE = 0.39) compared to after (X = 12.35, SE = 0.44), covey rises shot before (X = 6.89, SE = 0.28) and after (X = 7.75, SE = 0.37), or number of shots fired before (X = 23.5, SE = 1.19) versus after (X =24.11 SE = 1.26) the field trial. We were unable to detect any evidence that the type of disturbance generated by this field trial had any effect on either bobwhite survival or post trial hunting quality on our study area

Factors Influencing Northern Bobwhite Hunting Success on Two South Georgia Plantations

Success of wild northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) management programs on private lands is most often measured by the rate of coveys pointed during the hunting season. Thus, managers of these properties are keenly interested in factors that influence hunting success. We examined how coveys pointed/hour, a measure of hunting success, was influenced by time of hunting season, time of day, weather parameters, and supplemental feeding on 2 intensively-managed plantations over 4 years. There were significant annual differences in the number of coveys pointed/hour among the 4 study years, but hunting success did not vary during the hunting season. Afternoon hunts had consistently higher success rates than morning hunts; however, the effect size was variable from year to year. The selected weather model indicated an interaction between 12-hr barometric pressure change and starting air pressure; hunting success increased with a rapid pressure increase that resulted in a high pressure value at the start of the hunt. A secondary weather model documented a negative relationship between starting air temperature and hunting success. The number of days since supplemental feed was spread had no significant effect on hunting success in 5 of 6 years for the 2 plantations over 3 years. Knowledge of how these variables influence hunting success should improve hunting and provide realistic expectations of hunt success for a given set of circumstances

Use of Spring Whistle Counts to Predict Northern Bobwhite Relative Abundance

Spring whistle counts are commonly used to index northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) breeding populations and make inference about relative autumn abundance. They are relatively cheap and easy to implement and provide the advantage of surveying bobwhite populations from multiple points daily and early in the year. This could prove useful on properties available for potential lease, purchase, or as translocation sites; as well as to monitor population trends. Our objective was to determine whether spring whistle counts reliably forecast autumn covey numbers on a wide range of sites, years, and densities on 6 properties in southwestern Georgia from 2006 to 2015. We conducted spring whistle counts weekly during peak calling activity (late May–early Jun, for 4–6 consecutive years) on an average of 7 points/property (range = 5–9). We conducted autumn covey counts using these same sampling points as an index of relative abundance. Peak number of males heard in spring and number of coveys heard in autumn was strongly correlated (R2 = 0.791, n = 198) for all points combined, indicating that spring whistle counts are a reliable tool for assessing bobwhite relative abundance on sites where autumn covey counts are precluded or the information is needed prior to autumn