Brennan, Leonard A.

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National Quail Symposium Proceedings Volume 5 Article 54 2002 Closing Remarks: Pieces of the Puzzle, Circles in the Stream Leonard A. Brennan Texas A&M University Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp Recommended Citation Brennan, Leonard A. (2002) "Closing Remarks: Pieces of the Puzzle, Circles in the Stream," National Quail Symposium Proceedings: Vol. 5 , Article 54. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp/vol5/iss1/54 This Closing Remarks is brought to you for free and open access by Volunteer, Open Access, Library Journals (VOL Journals), published in partnership with The University of Tennessee (UT) University Libraries. This article has been accepted for inclusion in National Quail Symposium Proceedings by an authorized editor. For more information, please visit https://trace.tennessee.edu/nqsp. 246CLOSING REMARKS: PIECES OF THE PUZZLE,CIRCLES IN THE STREAMLeonard A. BrennanCaesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX 78363-8202, USACitation: Brennan, L. A. 2002. Closing remarks: pieces of the puzzle, circles in the stream. Pages 246–249in S. J. DeMaso,W. P. Kuvlesky, Jr., F. Hernández, and M. E. Berger, eds. Quail V: Proceedings of the Fifth National Quail Symposium. Texas Parksand Wildlife Department, Austin, TX.‘‘Some quail populations have been on thedecline for more than 2 decades; it will re-quire at least that amount of time to under-stand the causes of those declines and institutecorrective measures to reverse those trends.’’(Robel 1993:158)INTRODUCTIONIndividually and collectively, we continue to addpieces to the quail management and research puzzle.Nevertheless, 2 important questions remain: ‘‘Arethese the right pieces?’’ ‘‘Does the picture on the puz-zle we are putting together really make sense?’’Nearly a decade ago, Bob Robel (1993) challengedquail managers and researchers to consider 6 topics,with an assortment of associated questions (Table 1)that he considered were missing from the Quail IIIprogram. Since 10 years and 2 National Quail Sym-posia have now passed, I thought it would be produc-tive to revisit Robel’s remarks, and use them as a basisto organize these closing comments. Most of Robel’scomments and questions emphasized key points of anational strategic planning workshop, which was con-ducted at Quail III (Brennan 1993), and revisited atQuail IV (Brennan and Carroll 2000). This Quail Vwrap-up, for better or worse, provides an opportunityto elaborate on some points made in my ‘‘Progress andFrustration’’ paper, in the context of all North Amer-ican quails, not just bobwhites (Colinus virginianus).This leads me to my first point, which is to lament theapparent lack of research on and interest in the westernspecies of quail, as shown by these proceedings.PREDATION AND HUNTINGThere has been a renewed interest in addressingthe effects of predation on quail populations. Newtechnology (Staller et al.this volume) finally allows usto obtain a complete inventory of all the predators thatattack quail nests. This represents a significant meth-odological breakthrough. In the past, we could notidentify up to 30–40% of nest losses to predators. Ob-taining a complete inventory of all predators that at-tack quail nests, and understanding how nest depre-dation varies among sites and years, is absolutely cru-cial for understanding the different predator contextsin which quail struggle to reproduce. Agency directors(Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agen-cies 2000) recently passed a resolution which supportsthe philosophy that research on quail predation is avalid avenue of investigation, and that predator man-agement to enhance quail productivity is a legitimatepursuit on private lands, if conducted in accordancewith state and federal wildlife law and policy. Thepredator research and management resolution by theSoutheastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencydirectors represents a major agency policy change re-garding a topic that was once considered the ‘‘thirdrail’’ of wildlife management.Despite this progress, the issue of predation,whether in the arena of quail management or research,remains controversial and divisive. Some feel that ag-gressive predator reduction through management is apotential silver bullet that will provide significant quailhunting opportunities where none presently exist. Oth-ers believe that any and all efforts at predator man-agement are a complete and utter waste of time andeffort. The truth, and reality, most likely falls some-where between these 2 polarized views.I find it curious that biologists and managers oftentreat predation and hunting as 2 separate issues whenthey are really the same thing. Quail get killed. Toquote Dale McCullough: ‘‘Dead is dead.’’ Yet, some-how, the perception that death by shotgun is differentfrom death by tooth or talon continues to fascinate me.I think that future efforts to develop models of quailpredation (that include human hunting pressure) wouldbe extremely fruitful, especially in light of the newinsights gained from infrared video camera analysis ofnest losses. The impacts of human hunting and lossesto predators are, in many ways, 2 different, but ad-joining, pieces of the puzzle.DISEASES AND PARASITESThere seems to be little interest in conductingcomprehensive, contemporary research on quail dis-eases and parasites. In contrast to Robel’s plea (Table1), agencies, foundations, and private donors seem tohave little interest in supporting research on issues re-lated to quail diseases and parasites. There seems tobe a perception that while these topics may be inter-esting, they are not a priority to be addressed at thepresent time. This may be a mistake. For example, the1Brennan: Closing Remarks: Pieces of the Puzzle, Circles in the Stream247CLOSING REMARKSTable 1. Six topical areas and related questions that Robel (1993) considered missing from the Quail III program and proceedings.Topic QuestionPredation and hunting In today’s setting, what are the effects of predation and hunting on North American quail populations?Diseases and parasites How do these events [fragmentation, contamination, exotic species and exposure to domestic livestock] alterthe effects of pathogenic organisms on wildlife?How does the stress of human intervention alter the immunosupperssion systems of wildlife?Specifically, what are the effects of the above alterations on the susceptibility and vulnerability of quail todiseases and parasites, and how do these factors alter the reproductive responsiveness of North Americanquail?Habitat loss What are the effects of habitat alteration and fragmentation on quail populations in North America?How do farm and forestry policies affect quail populations, and how can these policies be modified orformulated to benefit quail populations in North America?What are the economic values . . . of quail populations and how can those values be melded into state andfederal programs to foster healthier populations?How can interest groups help develop these policies and assure that necessary legislative guidelines beadopted and programs initiated?What is the most effective way to develop policies and programs to benefit quail populations in NorthAmerica?Long-term data sets Where are the 20- and 30-year data sets?Without solid data, how can we monitor trends?How can we determine impacts of agricultural policies on quail populations?How can we determine if any of our efforts are beneficial to quail populations?Changing social values What will be the economic impact of decreased sales of hunting licenses and equipment on the managementof North American quail populations?How will passage of biodiversity legislation affect our efforts to manage habitat for specific species of quail?Basic biology How can we really determine the quality of quail habitats when we do not understand the macro- and micro-nutrient needs of quail?How do agricultural chemicals and industrial pollution alter the many metabolic and enzymatic pathways inNorth American quail?recent discovery ofBaylisascaris (a severely debili-tating nematode) in northern bobwhites from Kansas(Williams et al. 1997) points out that there is still muchto be learned on this front.HABITAT LOSSQuail V continues a habitat-based theme that hasbeen constant through the National Quail Symposia.With 17 titles on habitat or landscape-scale investiga-tions, this topic is the backbone of Quail V. Improve-ments in GIS technology are finally allowing quail re-searchers to assess broad scale land use dynamics inrelation to quail population changes. Using GIS to an-alyze habitat use and movement data from radio-marked quail also represents a major step forward.Still significant issues related to understanding quailhabitat ecology remain. Comparative studies that con-trast used and available habitat structure are surpris-ingly scarce in the bobwhite literature.Two papers at Quail V raised the ugly possibilitythat traditional quail habitat management methods maybe counter productive, because they can potentiallybenefit fire ants and therefore have unintended nega-tive consequences for quail. These papers make an in-teresting point about quail management in the contextof the contemporary landscape, which is that many ofthe tried and true management techniques that workedwell in the Stoddard-Rosene era no longer seemeffective today. This is probably because we do notyet have a reasonable handle on the habitat-area re-quirements needed to sustain quail populations, despiteour best efforts at conducting research on quail- habitatrelationships.LONG-TERM DATA SETSSeveral 20- and 30-year (or longer) data sets calledfor by Robel (1993) have actually started to appear(Brennan et al. 1997, Brennan et al. 2000, Guthery etal. this volume, Palmer et al.this volume, Thogmartinet al. this volume). The information in these long-termdata sets is revealing on several levels. First, data fromprivate lands managed for quail typically show leveltrends over time, in contrast to other broad scale datafrom hunter bags or landscape-level monitoring. Sec-ond, the presence of cyclicity may be more widespreadin quail than we once thought (Thogmartin et al.thisvolume). Third, hunter effort in relation to covey lo-cations may be more valuable at providing crude den-sity estimates than we once thought (Palmer et al.thisvolume). Fourth, temperature and precipitation appar-ently influence bobwhite productivity in a nonlinearmanner, with thresholds and asymptotes that call intoquestion the use of linear models for assessing suchsynamics (Guthery et al.this volume). These studies,while still relatively short-term compared to the datasets compiled from bag records in the United Kingdom(Tapper 1992), will only become more important anduseful over time. It would be especially welcome ifmore state resource agencies would make a renewed2National Quail Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 5 [2002], Art. 54248 BRENNANcommitment to collect, analyze, and publish long-termdata on quail populations and habitats.CHANGING SOCIAL VALUESDespite the recent study by Burger et al. (1999)on quail economics in the Southeast, understandinghow changing social values are effecting quail popu-lations remains a backwater of quail research. Note thelack of such material in this volume. Past quail sym-posia have contained important material on attitudesof quail hunters (Roseberry and Klimstra 1993), theirdemography (Crews and DeMaso 2000), and the po-tential effects of altering bag limits (Peterson and Per-ez 2000). Understanding the changing social contextin which quail, and other upland game birds are pre-sent, is absolutely critical for developing effectivewildlife policy. Yet, there is little activity on this front,despite the fact that such analyses can have huge po-tential impact on setting bag limits, which are oftendone more for political than biological reasons (Peter-son and Perez 2000).We are headed down a slippery slope in NorthAmerica. Modern quail hunting, as Mahoney (this vol-ume) states, is moving toward the European model ofhunting and away from the American one. This is theGrand Opera that Stoddard predicted. Mahoney raisesan interesting point. For example, like Robel (1993)we lament the loss of hunting license and equipmentrevenues generated from quail hunters (Table 1). How-ever, is it realistic for us to think that we can, or per-haps even should, strive to provide more quail huntingopportunities in light of the habitat fragmentation anddeclines faced by quail populations? Can we afford, orare we willing to pay, the societal and economic coststo do this? As quail managers and researchers, are wereally prepared to tackle these challenges if we aregiven the dollars and the green light to do so? Is iteven possible? Maintaining quail habitat (especiallyfor bobwhites in the southeastern United States) is theone of the most expensive forms of wildlife manage-ment in the world, except perhaps for captive breedingof endangered species. For quail hunting to becomeavailable to the majority of hunters with modest meansand incomes will require a massive change of directionin land use. Such changes can only happen if societyis willing to provide incentives, and individuals arewilling to make the sacrifices, that will be required toreserve a space for quail on the landscape. Given whatI have seen in an early draft of the 2002 Farm Bill,there seems to be virtually nothing coming with re-spect to incentives for people to implement quail-friendly land use practices on farms, forests, or rangelands.BASIC BIOLOGYThe new availability and economy of moleculartools has set the stage for numerous breakthroughs inunderstanding the basic biology of quail (Faircloth etal. this volume). Unique genetic markers will allow usto answer questions pertaining to the relatedness ofquail broods and coveys, how specific alleles are pre-sent (or not) in relation to boom and bust populationdynamics, and whether there really are20 subspeciesof northern bobwhite, among other things. Roseberry(1993) raised many of these issues, and to date, onlyGuthery (1997) and his colleagues have systematicallyapproached quail research with a set of multiple work-ing hypotheses based on theory (Herna´ndez et al.2002).Despite the need for basic research, applied studieswill probably remain the backbone of quail researchin the foreseeable future. This represents opportunity.Empirical studies can, and should, be designed andconducted to test theoretical ideas about how livingnature is assembled. Consider, for example, the use ofGPS and radiotelemetry technology to analyze point-ing dog effectiveness. Taking such data, and evaluatingit in light of the theory of hunter-covey dynamics(Radomski and Guthery 2000), elevates such an in-vestigation to a new, more productive level.IN SUMMARY: CIRCLES IN THESTREAMScientific research, when published, is like a stonetossed in the water. Most of the time, research gener-ates small pebbles that make small splashes. Once ina while a big rock from research makes a big splash.In either case, pebbles and rocks generate concentric,circular wave patterns over the surface of the waterupon which they are tossed. Research works the sameway. Ten years ago, Bob Robel tossed half a dozenstones in the stream of quail research. Today, their cir-cles still resonate. Some of these circles obviously res-onate more than others. The challenge is to understandwhere and how these and many other circles in thestream of quail research fit together and overlap.We have made significant quail research progresson issues related to predation (but not so much withhunting), habitat losses, and understanding long-termpopulation trends. We have virtually ignored issues re-lated to quail diseases, and how changing societal val-ues are affecting quail populations in North America.We hold hope and promise that modern research toolsand techniques will provide new insights into the basicbiology and management of these birds that we cher-ish. We need to make better use of theory as we searchto unify our understanding of the factors that regulateand limit wild quail populations. We need to pay moreattention to the quails of the American West.ACKNOWLEDGMENTThis is technical article number 01-117 of the Cae-sar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&MUniversity, Kingsville.LITERATURE CITEDBrennan, L. A. 1993. Strategic plan for quail management andresearch in the United States: introduction and background.Proceedings of the National Quail Symposium 3:160–169.3Brennan: Closing Remarks: Pieces of the Puzzle, Circles in the Stream249CLOSING REMARKSBrennan, L. A., and J. P. Carroll. 2000. Strategic planningupdate. Proceedings of the National Quail Symposium 4:233–235.Brennan, L. A., J. M. Lee, and R. S. Fuller. 2000. Long-termtrends of northern bobwhite populations and hunting suc-cess on private shooting plantations in northern Florida andsouthern Georgia. Proceedings of the National QuailSymposium 4:75–77.Brennan, L. A., W. Rosene, B. D. Leopold, and G. A. Hurst.1997. Northern bobwhite population trends at Groton Plan-tation, South Carolina: 1957–1990. Miscellaneous Publica-tion No. 10. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee,Florida.Burger, L.W., D. A. Miller, and R. I. Southwick. 1999. Economicimpact of northern bobwhite hunting in the southeasternUnited States. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:1010–1018.Crews, A. K., and S. J. DeMaso. 2000. Demographics of quailhunters in Oklahoma. Proceedings of the National QuailSymposium 4:219–225.Hernández, F., F. S. Guthery, and W. P. Kuvlesky, Jr. 2002. Thelegacy of bobwhite research in south Texas. Journal ofWildlife Management 66:IN PRESS.Peterson, M. J., and R. M. Perez. 2000. Is quail hunting self-regulatory? Northern bobwhite and scaled quail abundanceand quail hunting in Texas. Proceedings of the NationalQuail Symposium 4:85–91.Radomski, A. A., and F. S. Guthery. 2000. Theory of the hunter-covey interface. Proceedings of the National Quail Sym-posium 4:78–81.Robel, R. J. 1993. Symposium wrap-up: what is missing? Pro-ceedings of the National Quail Symposium 3:156–158.Roseberry, J. L. 1993. Bobwhite and the ‘‘new’’ biology. Pro-ceedings of the National Quail Symposium 3:16–20.Roseberry, J. L., and W. D. Klimstra. 1993. Attitudes of a selectgroup of Illinois quail hunters. Proceedings of the NationalQuail Symposium 3:34–42.Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAF-WA). 2000. Director’s resolution regarding northern bob-white predator management and research. On file withSEAFWA Executive Secretary, Tallahassee, Florida.Tapper, S. 1992. Game heritage. The Game Conservancy, For-dingbridge, United Kingdom.Williams, C. K., R. D. McKown, J. K. Veatch, and R. D. Ap-plegate. 1997.Baylisascaris sp. found in a wild northernbobwhite. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 33:158–160.4National Quail Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 5 [2002], Art. 54

Closing Remarks: Pieces of the Puzzle, Circles in the Stream

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