News Release
Media Contact: Steve Lightfoot, 512-389-4701, steve.lightfoot@tpwd.state.tx.us

April 12, 2012

TPW Commission Looks to Science for Solution to Quail Woes
AUSTIN –Texas quail hunters should not expect substantive changes for the 2012-13 season after the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission urged biologists to intensify quail conservation efforts, while minimizing the use of regulations as a means to address declining bobwhite populations.

“We don’t see regulations as a defining tool to deal with the bigger, long term issues facing quail in Texas,” said commission Chairman T. Dan Friedkin. “Quail conservation is a critically important issue and one that the department will continue to emphasize and invest resources in, but it’s not a simple regulatory issue.”

The chairman did not rule out the possibility of a regionally-zoned approach to quail seasons based on scientific justifications. The commission will discuss a proposed framework for the 2012-13 quail season at its May 23 public hearing and following the public comment period, render a final decision in August.

The commission signal to forego any major restructuring of the quail season for this year comes after careful deliberation of scientific studies and input from some of the nation’s renowned bobwhite researchers. These scientists met in Austin recently to discuss the relationship between harvest regulations and population trends for quail. The group concluded that harvest regulations have little effect on quail population trends overall and that quail have been in decline over the long term due to losses in the quantity and quality of suitable habitat.

“Hunting did not cause quail declines,” Robert Perez, upland game bird program leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told commissioners. “Responding to annual variation in quail abundance gives the impression that populations can be influenced by regulatory changes when, in fact, weather and habitat are the driving forces.”

The commission directed TPWD staff to redouble habitat management efforts using proven strategies and to continue to support habitat-based research. Specifically, TPWD should direct resources to development of focus areas that demonstrate successful quail restoration. These approaches are all part of TPWD’s Upland Game Bird Strategic Plan which lays the groundwork for ongoing and future game bird conservation and management.

A focus area is generally larger than a county but smaller than an ecoregion with a boundary determined by opportunity, habitat potential and landowner and partner interest and participation. An example of a focus area is the Wildlife Habitat Federation site in South Central Texas where prairie grassland habitat restoration has been under way since 2004. Other potential sites have been identified through the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, a multi-state, federal conservation partnership focused on priority grassland birds.

A recent survey of states within the bobwhite range reported an interest in enhancing population monitoring efforts at the “focus area” scale, to measure the impacts of habitat manipulation and develop models that can be reproduced in other areas with restoration potential. This is becoming the national model for bobwhite quail conservation.

“Bobwhites respond to habitat improvements when they occur at a scale that can support a viable population,” Perez noted. “When neighbors work together along with partners, quail can begin to recover. We need to demonstrate and document success at the focus area scale and encourage more folks to help old bob.”

Much of the research and demonstration site work with bobwhite in Texas is funded with money generated by the Upland Game Bird Stamp program and matching grants through the federal Wildlife Restoration Program, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The funds allow TPWD’s wildlife biologists to offer many services, including technical guidance to private landowners, surveys and research for development of hunting regulations, operation and management of Wildlife Management Areas in Texas, and research to develop techniques for managing wildlife populations and wildlife.

By law, Wildlife Restoration funding is limited to wildlife management, related public use, and hunter education. Funds collected from federal excise taxes paid by manufacturers (an 11% excise tax on sporting rifles, shotguns, ammunition, and archery equipment and a 10% tax on handguns) are distributed to states based on number of hunters and land area. Texas receives the maximum distribution allowable under the program, about $17.6 million in 2011.

SL 2012-04-12

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Lot of good these fund are going to do when the Legislature allows these funds to be diverted to the GAOBH to help cover the ongoing defecit.

Just how dumb does one think a bird hunter is? Same old bunch of mess that the TP&WL throws at us ever time a problem arises that involves money.

I think everyone is just grabbing at straws. Quail hunting as we once knew it is over. We had more quail in the gulf coast praries than anywhere in Texas this year, and we blanked a lot of covey rises.

I could not agree more with Bill Oxner's comment, I've quail hunted for 30 years and been through all the TIBHA, NSTRA, TBHA, AFTAC, ect when I threw in the towel a couple a years ago at the time I had 17 english pointers and several walking horses, man I am here to tell you this Kubota with a high rack is a low maintenance and the deer/hog are just get stronger in population every year and I'm doing my part to control the population of those, somethimes ya gotta go with the flow.
Whatever is responsable for the decline in population of the quail in Texas, it is my opnion that is has the best of the best dazed and confused...I kept one of everything in hopes the king of upland will someday return, its my opnion TPWD needs to look outside the 9 dots for the answer.....and PDQ.

Unfortunately, it's been in decline much longer than we realize.
My father was born in 1897 and died in 1966..For much of his
life from about 20 until about 60 he was a avid bird hunter..He
said in the late 30's and early 40's East Texas was full of quail
but that almost every home had a garden with at least one covey
of birds..We live in an age where everyone thinks computers, education, and money will solve everthing..No one told the birds.
Most don't trap/kill varmits and house cats, nor due they have
gardens..We have the weather, no rain, no habitat, and varmits.
No one actively traps/kills varmits or verimin anymore..My hunting buddy had to show Doc the Roadrunners with baby quail in
their mouths before he'd believe they also were predators..Don

Roadrunners kill Quail? learn something new every day.. seen a few RR around here.. had heard fireant's has alot ta do with it also, cyotes take a few, snakes, seen some foxes lately, hog's, coon's, bobcats, am sure i missed a few others.. one of the key things u stated was almost every home had a garden hmmm food, they need cover, ta protect from all the preditors mentioned above.. u also mentioned computor's, education, & money.. a person with an education in Wildlife Management, can do wonders with a computor.. do most of my hunting on WMA's, their open ta the public, it's a tough job, their limited in their funds.. yet i've seen some good improvements. habitate has alot ta do with seeing Quail.. just like anything else, sometimes it takes manual labor..

Guys, let's get real. Mother Nature created this decline in quail. Mother Nature will have to bring them back. The U.S. and the rest of the world does not print enough money to pay off Mother Nature. If the TPWD gave us every penny of the fund, is that really going to bring us the glory days back? Not in my opinion. Only favorable climatic conditions for several years and habitat management and feeding will make for a sustainable population of quail.

You said a mouthful James!

What mess and what money will you have to fork over?

I have seen the same decline on my ranch with the blues.

Where they roam nothing has changed. It's not ag country.. the only thing that changes is rain, and weather.

Thanks Coolie. Just another threat to the declineing population.

habitat improvement and rain.....not a complicated solution

Humans have had a lot of influences on quail populations, its not all weather related however the weather in the number 1 factor year in year out. Years ago, when people trapped for a living, shot birds of prey, every snake they saw, the quail had few enemies. Nowadays a baby quail has to run a gauntlet of predators. Heres another one no one has mentioned, the turkey. Do you think a baby quail doesn't look like a nice fat bug to a turkey? Plus they utilize almost the same habitat. Turkeys and quail are similiar in habits, but has there been a turkey decline? No in fact their population is growing. IMO one success might be causing anothers demise, whos to say. Its hard to say what the landscape might look like without human manipulation. There might be more birds but then again there might be less.

TPWD is in the business of selling hunting licenses, they don't want to limit hunting. Want to help quail on your land or lease? Don't hunt them during drought. Take <10% of the population during non drought. Make sure they have sufficient food and cover, and pray for rain.

Doc, for purposes of clarification, are you saying hunting pressure is a factor in the quail decline?

What kind of research are you doing and what are your conclusions?

The major causes of the quail population declining is 1) habitat change (development, overgrazing, ag, or just change); 2) unfavorable weather events (drought, ice storms, heat); and 3) Predation. Predation is where hunters fall in. Hogs, Racoons, Road runners, hawks, foxes, coyotes, and of course, hunters. If you kill a bird, it is not going to reproduce the following year. I'm a hunter/predator too.

If you monitor the population and find out how many birds you have, you can safely take 10% of your birds. In drought years you should get closer to 0%. If you get back to 1980's levels, you can safely take 20% but I don't think we'll see that for some time.