Survival of Pen-Raised Northern Bobwhite Quail Released Into the Wild.

The decline of Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in North America has been well documented, and estimated to be 3% annually, since 1966. Some managers have started using a practice of releasing pen-reared birds to augment their quail population for hunting needs with the hope of long-term survival and population carryover. Unfortunately, the majority of these release efforts result in total loss. Often this loss occurs within a few weeks of release. Most scientists suggest the failure is caused by the birds’ inability to adapt to their new environment upon release to the wild and do not consider the release of pen-raised birds to be a viable option for the purpose of long term restocking efforts. Given the potential positive outcomes from successful releases and current reports of landowner success, I initiated a study on George Allen’s Circle A Ranch designed to estimate the survival and home range size of pen-raised Northern Bobwhites released into the wild. Fifty birds equipped with radio-transmitters were released in both 2010 an 2011. The survival rates results for 2010 were very encouraging, stating higher survival rates than previous literature while the results from 2011 were still promising but lower than 2010.