Quail managers spend considerable effort and expense to produce populations of bobwhite. Having large areas of habitat is critical to ensure that bobwhite populations can be sustained over time.
However, since most managers are producing bobwhite for hunting, careful consideration of bobwhite harvest is also important, yet sometimes neglected.
It is essential to understand that bobwhite can be overharvested to a level that affects the following year’s ‘standing crop’ of bobwhite. This means that harvest from one year caused the next year’s bobwhite population to be at a lower level that it otherwise might have.
This is in stark contrast to the false idea that bobwhite harvest is compensatory, meaning that bobwhite can recover from any level of harvest within a given year. Bobwhite do have the capacity to have high reproduction to compensate from harvest, predation, and other sources of mortality when the habitat and weather are appropriate.
This is achieved by a high reproductive potential fueled by male and female incubation, frequent renesting attempts, large clutch sizes, a long nesting season, and multiple paternity (polygamy). But, there are limits to this high reproductive capacity and it is lower than many hunters realize.
This idea of partial compensation should be the cornerstone of the manager’s paradigm on quail harvest.
So, how much harvest can a bobwhite population withstand? It can vary depending on habitat quality and quantity, sources of immigration from surrounding properties, additional mortality sources, and annual weather. Yet, under most circumstances harvest over 20-25% is likely to lead to a reduced
bobwhite population the following year.
Continued years at these harvest levels can lead to local extirpation of a bobwhite population, especially on smaller quail properties. Therefore, the conservative harvest level that we recommend is 15%. At higher levels, it becomes less likely that bobwhite will reproduce at a level to compensate in a given year, and often the population will drop.
In addition to documented harvest (those birds taken in the bag), there are bobwhite that are not recovered. This may be bobwhite that are both known or unknown as injured. Do not assume that only birds you noticed as hit are the only ones being injured and not recovered as it is difficult to notice all injured birds during the excitement of a covey flush and with multiple shots fired.
Our estimates suggest an additional 20-30% of the documented harvest is in fact unrecovered. This adjustment factor (1.3x birds in the bag) should be considered to ensure that overharvest is not happening in a population.
With the above recommendations in mind, it is clear that some reasonable estimate of bobwhite population size is needed for a property or hunting area. There are a couple of methods that can be used to estimate population. Fall covey listening counts are often used. While not perfect, by following some general guidelines a land manager can get a reasonable population estimate that can be used.
On small properties, simply mapping known coveys that are flushed in late summer and early fall can be fairly accurate as well. With both methods, the number of detected coveys is multiplied by the estimated average quail per covey. This is a conservative estimate as not all coveys call or are seen.
There are additionally correction factors that can be applied, but should be used cautiously so as not to overestimate the population. If estimating fall population density is new for you, consult with a professional wildlife biologist to help you get started.
As an example, consider a 500-acre property where the landowner estimated 1 bird per 2 acres for a population estimate of 250 bobwhites. Assuming a conservative 15% harvest, this allows 38 birds to be harvested with an additional 10 estimated as lost for a total of <50 bobwhite removed from the
population (20%).
On a small property such as this example, it should be clear that more restrictive harvest rules would need to be in place than what the statewide regulations permit. For example, if the state agency allowed a daily bag limit of 10 birds, and assuming it could be achieved on each hunt, a pair of hunters would reach this harvest level in only 2 hunts.
This may not be acceptable to the hunters in terms of opportunity. Therefore, a daily party bag limit that is more restrictive may be desired to spread out harvest and provide more days of hunting and more covey encounters for the dogs. If a daily bag of only 5 per party were used, the number of hunts quadruples in this example.
Further restrictions such as limiting the number of birds harvested per covey encounter could further increase hunt days and/or covey encounters. Hunter preference will dictate the level of self-imposed restrictions to ensure that an optimal level of satisfaction and opportunity can be enjoyed.
Regardless of how hunters choose to spread out harvest, it is critical to recognize that bobwhite harvest can be high enough to cause next year’s fall bobwhite population to be lower. In extreme cases, additive harvest may cause local bobwhite populations to completely disappear from a property.
Areas that have small amounts of bobwhite habitat, low population numbers, and are surrounded by non-habitat (isolated) are at a much greater risk of overharvest. The conservative quail manager should monitor bobwhite populations on their property, account for crippling loss, and keep overall harvest <20%. Assume your property is an island and do not count on immigration from surrounding properties to rescue you.
This level of self-regulation can increase the likelihood that you will have a sustained and huntable bobwhite population for years to come. A wildlife biologist can assist you with these considerations.
