Cottontail Rabbit Biology and Management

Extension Forestry & Natural Resources
Wildlife & Fisheries Biology  –  Environmental & Natural Resources  –  Forest Resources

Cottontail Rabbit Biology and Management
Greg Yarrow, Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Extension Wildlife Specialist

Fact Sheet 8: Revised May 2009

The cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) is one game species familiar to virtually everyone. Its requirements for life are relatively simple and this, coupled with a high reproductive capacity, enables it to hold the title of the most important game animal in North America.

The cottontail was not abundant in the United States when the settlers arrived, but with the introduction of early agriculture, the cottontail increased. In recent years, changing land use practices, particularly conversion of patchy farming to forest production and intensive farming, have resulted in cottontail rabbit population declines. Declines will continue unless the habitat needs of cottontails are provided.

Three species of rabbits are found in South Carolina. The eastern cottontail is the most common and is statewide in distribution. The larger swamp rabbit or “cane cutter” occurs in the Piedmont, primarily along or adjacent to the Savannah River. The marsh rabbit inhabits the Coastal Plain portion of the state and is the smallest of the state’s rabbits.

Although these rabbits are three distinct species, they are all commonly referred to as cottontails by the average hunter and other laymen. Likewise, the terms cottontail and rabbit as used in this text will apply to the eastern cottontail and other rabbit species as well.
Life History

When the cold days of winter begin to merge with the warmer springlike days of late February and March, males or buck cottontails, seek does and mate, signifying the start of the breeding season which will run until late summer.

Near the end of the 28-day gestation period, the heavy-bodied female or doe will begin selecting a well-drained location, usually in an old field, open woodland, garden or even an open lawn, on which to construct her nest. There a nest cavity approximately five inches wide and seven inches long is constructed. After excavation is complete, the doe will line the nest cavity with layers of grass, leaves, or small roots which will later be topped with fur pulled from her underside.

At birth, baby cottontails weigh approximately one ounce, are blind, deaf and completely helpless. A litter of cottontails may vary in number from one to seven, but the average litter size is around three or four. The young remain hidden in the nest covered with dead litter or leaves and within 14 days are strong enough to leave their mother and the nest to fend for themselves. The doe cottontail may breed the same day the litter is born and may repeat the young rearing process three or four times during the breeding season. A new nest is generally constructed for each successive litter.
Foods and Cover Requirements

South Carolina cottontails eat an extremely wide variety of plant foods. Some of the more general items include grasses, sedges, sprouts, leaves, fruits, buds and bark. During the summer, cottontails dine primarily on grasses, legumes, succulent annuals, weeds, and an occasional garden vegetable. The winter diet includes small grains, as well as twigs, bark and buds of shrubs and trees. In agricultural areas, grains wasted in the field, such as corn and soybeans, provide a source of high energy food.

Cover requirements for cottontails closely resemble those of quail in that they require an interspersion of woodlands, brush, grass and cultivated lands — a diversity of habitat. Rabbits are fair game for nearly all predators, and for this reason suitable escape cover is crucial.
Habitat Improvements and Other Considerations

The cottontail is the number one game animal in the United States, although it may not rank as high in South Carolina as in other parts of the country. In general, rabbit hunting appears to be most popular in the Piedmont, possibly because of it’s relative abundance.

Rabbits actually require little management, but in no instance can there be more cottontails than a given piece of land can support. “Carrying capacity” is a term used to define the ability of an area to support wildlife, in this instance rabbits. Factors influencing the carrying capacity include the quality and quantity of food, cover, water supply, and other environmental or biotic factors which tend to limit the number of rabbits an area will support.
Limiting Factors

Rabbits are the most heavily preyed upon of all game species, and they are also susceptible to a variety of diseases and parasites, some of which can be deadly. During certain seasons of the year, some South Carolina predators, both terrestrial and avian, subsist mainly on a diet of cottontails. Due to their abundance, foxes are probably the most important predators on rabbits which at times compose as much as 50 percent of their diet. The bobcat is the perfectionist when it comes to catching rabbits and nearly 75 percent of its diet may be cottontails. Larger hawks and owls also consume rabbits readily and up to 40 percent of a great horned owl’s diet may be cottontails. Cottontails, their nest and young are hunted effectively by practical­ly every wild predator, including coyotes, crows, dogs, feral cats, foxes, hawks, minks, owls, snakes, skunks and weasels.

“Bad,” you say? Not necessarily, for it is this predation that keeps rabbit populations strong and healthy. Remember, rabbits are very prolific and can maintain good populations with heavy predation, providing suitable escape cover is available.

Diseases and parasites are common in most wild species and are generally insignificant. There are, however, some which are of interest to hunters and other cottontail enthusiasts. While most cause the rabbit little harm, some are responsible for the needless waste of hundreds of pounds of rabbit meat each year.

Probably the best known or most obvious cottontail afflictions are wolves, warbles or bots. These terms are used to describe a large fly larvae of grub-like appearance that are found under the skin of infected rabbits, generally on the neck and chest. Wolves, as they are more commonly called, are larval stages of certain species of fly. Eggs are laid on the hair of the rabbit by the adult fly and later hatch into immature larvae which bore into the skin. These larvae will grow until they are approximately one and a half inches long, at which time they will emerge from the rabbit’s skin, fall to the ground, bore into the soil, pupate and later emerge as adult flies. These parasites are more abundant during warmer weather and are generally gone from infected rabbits by late fall or early winter. Infected rabbits rarely die and the meat is edible if larvae are removed and the meat well cooked.

Fibroma disease or “rabbit horn” is a virus-induced black growth occasionally found on the skin of cottontails. This warty-appearing growth is normally confined to the skin and is usually removed along with the hide. Infected rabbits can be handled, cleaned and eaten in perfect safety. The disease-producing virus is spread by ticks, mosquitos, biting flies and other biting insects.

Tularemia or “rabbit fever” is the single most important and deadly disease affecting cottontails. The causal organism, a microscopic bacteria Pasteurella tularensis, is capable of infecting a number of wild birds and mammals (including man), but more commonly occurs in rodents and rabbits. High rabbit populations are especially prone to tularemia infections and the disease can quickly decimate local rabbit populations. Infected rabbits die within a week or ten days following the onset of the illness. Signs of the disease in rabbits include sluggishness, slow reactions and refusal to run. In advanced stages, internal organs such as the lungs, liver and spleen may be covered with small white spots. Positive diagnosis of tularemia requires laboratory work by disease experts.

As has been mentioned earlier, humans are susceptible to tularemia and at present there are no vaccines to prevent the disease, but tularemia responds quickly to antibiotics and can no longer be considered an important disease in this state.

Although the seriousness of tularemia as a human malady has been reduced in recent years, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are several steps you can take as added protection against the disease. Even without these added precautions, there are only about 10 cases of tularemia per 1 million people annually.

The following methods for protection against tularemia are recommended:

Hunt rabbits after the coming of cool weather when there’s a good chance that most sick rabbits have died.
If a rabbit shows no natural wariness or alertness, and no strong inclination to run, don’t bag him. Sick rabbits are often sluggish and “tame.”
Always wear rubber gloves when dressing rabbits, even in winter. Avoid getting rabbit blood on your hands in the field.
After removing your rubber gloves, wash hands well with strong soap and hot water if available, and touch all cuts, scratches, and abrasions on your hands with iodine. This can be done in the field as well as at home.
Cook rabbits thoroughly. Never eat rare or underdone rabbit.

Management for Cottontails

Cottontails are extremely prolific, will eat a wide variety of plants, and in general require little management. In most areas of South Carolina, a stable population of about one (1) rabbit per acre can be obtained by providing green food plants and plenty of cover, especially during the winter.

In spite of the relative ease and effectiveness of rabbit management, numerous hunters and landowners believe the quickest, easiest, and best way to ensure a high rabbit population is through stocking. This method is one of the oldest techniques in rabbit management, and is also the most useless and expensive. Studies in northern areas show that only about 4 percent of the rabbits released are ever harvested and that this figure only increases 25 percent when rabbits are stocked just before hunting. The cost per rabbit that was harvested or survived to breed was approximately $7.00 apiece.

Since the cottontail may spend most of its lifetime on one acre or less, it is not necessary to tie up large areas of land in rabbit management. Some management of odd field corners, unproductive crop land, and on idle land will do much to increase cottontail numbers.

Adequate escape cover is all important in building huntable rabbit populations. Escape cover is not as difficult to develop and maintain in South Carolina as some northern areas, but even here, bare ditch banks, clean fence rows, a few acres of broomsedge and large pastures or cultivated fields do not qualify.

Rabbits do not make fussy demands about cover so long as it is sufficiently large and protective. Cover strips, briar patches or brush piles, however, should be at least 20 feet wide. Cover development falls into two major categories: vegetative and artificial. Vegetative cover includes natural thickets such as blackberry, honeysuckle, fallow areas, bicolor lespedeza, or any naturally growing thicket which is sufficiently thick to provide protection from foxes, hawks, owls, dogs and other predators. Artificial cover includes brush piles, rail fences, or piles of rock with drain tiles underneath for access.

Adequate cover may also be provided by allowing little or unused areas such as stream banks, drainage ditches, fence rows, pond edges or edges of fields to revert back to natural vegetation. The areas usually provide long narrow strips of cover which can further be improved by planting food strips adjacent to them.
Other Management Procedures

So far we have discussed cover used primarily for escape and protection. However, vegetative cover provided in transition zones is equally important.

Transition zones are simply a third habitat type developed between two existing and different habitat types. In most instances transition zones may be developed along an adjoining edge between fence rows, roads, ditch banks, timbered areas, and cultivated fields.

Modern and extensive farming methods coupled with the rising cost of farm machinery dictates that landowners get the most return for their investments. This in turn has led to abandonment of tenant-type farming, where the common practice was to leave basically non-productive field edges in native vegetation. While this could not be considered progressive agriculture, it did provide ideal habitat for the cottontail. The present-day practice of plowing and planting fields to the edge has done little to increase total agriculture production since returns are poor on crops planted in the “shaded-out” areas. These practices have, however, reduced this area’s ability to produce rabbits.

Transition zones between forest and field are extremely important because rabbits are an “edge” species and the amount and quality of edge present usually dictates the abundance of cottontails on a particular area. Edge is simply areas where two habitat or vegetative types come together. They often provide a greater variety of food and cover types than one habitat. Properly managed and maintained, these areas will provide much of the rabbits’ needs year-round.

Transition zones may be established in the agriculturally unproductive field corners, edges or borders. These zones may be located where woodlands meet crop fields or exposed pastures and along fence lines and roadways.  Transition strips may cover all the unproductive field edge but should never be less than 15 feet wide. The species and composition of the vegetation which invades these areas will depend upon the soil type, fertility and pH in the area.

The establishment of transition zones is perhaps the easiest and cheapest rabbit management practice on agricultural land, because nature does the work. These zones may be established by simply removing strips of land from its previous use and protecting it from any disturbance such as disking, fire or grazing except during habitat management.

To maintain transition zones in a mixture of legumes, grasses and weeds, they must be burned, plowed or disked in early spring. It is not necessary, however, to do this every year, and a good rule of thumb is that when more than 50 percent of the soil is covered in dead vegetation, the lands needs maintenance. In South Carolina this will occur sometime between two and six years after establishment. Fields having transition zones around three or four sides may be maintained on one side annually, starting approximately two years after zones are established.

The importance of transition zones in cottontail management depends largely upon the type of habitat adjoining cultivated areas. Transition zones are of less value in situations where early successional habitat types or ground cover immediately adjoin cultivated areas and are of more value where usually dense or sparse ground cover exists.

Other types of vegetative cover are also important under conditions. Large fields and pasture, for example, contain areas within the center which are not utilized. Generally, rabbits will not venture far into the open from the nearest adequate cover type. To provide access routes into these areas, large fields may be broken into smaller tracts by providing travel lanes across or into these fields. This may be accomplished by leaving undisturbed strips to volunteer to native vegetation.

These strips should be at least 60 feet wide and wider if practical. They may be “set up” by connecting adjacent timbered, cultivated areas or areas providing adequate cover. These strips should be maintained by mowing, disking or burning one side of each strip every two or three years in the early spring. In order to receive some economic return from fallow crop land removed from production, these areas may be established in pine seedlings on a spacing between 8’ x 10’ and 12’ x 12’. These plantings will provide a permanent cover type for the future as well as some financial return. If pines are not used, brush piles or other suitable escape cover located randomly through transition zones will greatly increase rabbit utilization of the area.
Developing Food

It is generally desirable to provide food as well as cover in order to have rabbits on your land. One-fourth-acre food patches or strips of food planted beside adequate escape cover will be beneficial to rabbits, especially in the winter, and will make them easier to find while hunting. If possible, there should be at least one food patch for every two to five acres under rabbit management. White and crimson clover and bahiagrass provide good food during the spring and any green succulent vegetation such as alfalfa, wheat, barley, ryegrass, winter peas, various annual grazing mixtures, and grain wasted during harvest will provide a supplemental winter food source.

Regardless of the amount or type of food and/or cover provided for the cottontail, a diversity of interspersion of the types (food, cover, etc.) is the key to providing rabbits with the necessities of life. Diversity or interspersion is nothing more or less than the mixing of various types of living areas preferred by rabbits, as rabbits are primarily an “edge” species that is commonly found where two habitat types meet. For this reason then, it is easy to see why several small patches of food and cover are better than large areas of each type.
Forest Management for Cottontails

Although high rabbit populations and good rabbit hunting are generally associated with mixed cultivated areas and farmlands, properly managed forest types can provide rabbit hunting. With an ever increasing acreage of land being converted to pine tree production in South Carolina, development of timber management practices that provide cottontail habitat is essential to maintain adequate rabbit populations.

Of all the techniques used in forest management, the proper use of fire is probably the cheapest and most effective method known to improve rabbit habitat in certain timber types. Although prescribed burning is an excellent wildlife management tool, there are some general guidelines which may be useful in burning for rabbits and other small game. Burning should be conducted only in forests managed for pine production. Pine seedlings and mature hardwoods may be damaged or killed by small amounts of fire. Pine land burning for intensive cottontail management should be done between the middle of February and the last of March. Following this procedure, the total acreage should be burned every two years. Burning in April or later may do more harm than good. Burning should be limited to early morning or late afternoon. With rare exceptions, only a backfire (into the wind) should be used. Normally backfires should be burned with a steady breeze of five to eight miles per hour.

Relative humidity is important in that it affects the combustibility of the ground litter. As the humidity falls, the fire is likely to become hotter. Temperature affects fire in that greater combustibility of material and better burning conditions are generally associated with higher temperatures. Fires burn faster up hill than down, and the use of fire on steep slopes may remove material necessary to prevent soil erosion. Fire breaks should be established every 600 to 800 feet on large areas and around areas which are to be left unburned. Proper fire fighting equipment and manpower should be available should the fire get out of control.

Prescribed burning during February and March on open farmlands provides some of the same benefits of disking at a reduced cost. Fire may be used in some locations to reduce dense herbaceous vegetation and provide for an increase in preferred food plants. Field or broomsedge containing one to several years’ growth may develop into various native rabbit food plants following a winter burn. In all areas where burning is considered, adequate escape cover should be left distributed over approximately 25 percent of the land.

In addition to forest characteristics affected by fire, other factors such as the density of the timber stand should also be considered in cottontail management. In general, cottontails prefer moderate to open pine stands. To achieve this, some types of forest management are more desirable than others.

If rabbits and/or quail are to be managed for in addition to timber, then long rotations (saw timber production) are preferred over short rotations (pulpwood production). Properly managed long rotations in which merchantable trees are removed and natural reproduction periodically thinned can provide ideal small game habitat. In most instances, a properly managed forest will provide some cottontail habitat providing the forest is kept open and thinned. It should be remembered, however, that management for open timber stands, especially when used in conjunction with annual or semi-annual prescribed burns, will greatly reduce natural escape cover so important in rabbit management. For this reason efforts should be made to protect escape cover from fire and to prohibit fire in areas in which adequate cover is lacking or to create artificial escape cover. Areas in mature timber and regeneration sites may be further improved for rabbits by planting ¼ acre food patches or strips at the rate of one per each three to five acres. These food patches should always be located adjacent to suitable loafing and escape cover. If possible, timber regeneration areas should be adequate cover in the understory.
Cottontail Harvest

Rabbit populations are not harmed by heavy hunting pressure. Rabbits, like quail and most other small game, have a high annual turnover rate (up to 80 per­cent) which occurs regardless of whether or not they are hunted. In other words, you can’t stockpile rabbits regardless of the carrying capacity of the land. If hunters do not remove the annual surplus, then weather, disease, parasites, predators or starvation will. Normally up to 65 percent of the fall rabbit population may be taken without affecting the spring breeding population.

Download the printer-friendly version of Cottontail Rabbit Biology and Management (PDF, 112 KB)  fs8_cottontail_rabbit

Measuring the Predator Context on Your Land to Manage Predation of Bobwhites

William E. Palmer, Ph.D. Tall Timbers Research Station

The interactions of predators and prey are fascinating areas of ecological research and one of the most challenging aspects of game management. While controversy exists among U.S. game biologists, in many parts of the world, researchers have determined that predators can limit game bird abundance (Newton 1998). In the U.S., the effect of predators on game bird populations likely varies regionally because of the impacts of weather on wildlife populations. Severe drought and heat in the southwest play an important role in game bird populations and may alter the effect of predators by disrupting predator-prey dynamics. These systems tend to produce “boom or bust” cycles for game birds like bobwhite. While game bird populations vary from year to year in the Southeast, the highs and lows are not as pronounced as in other regions. In the southeast our weather patterns are much more consistent from year to year. While we have droughts, they rarely last and entire growing season and are not usually associated with long-term stretches of blistering temperatures. Analysis of long-term population data by Tall Timbers indicates weather has a minor influence on annual fluctuations of bobwhites. Case in point, the record bobwhite populations maintained in the Red Hills during a record 3-year drought. Partly because of the milder climate, the predator community affecting bobwhites is also relatively stable from year to year (though epizootics occasionally impact some populations of predators). Other facts about the predator community combine to suggest predators may limit some populations of bobwhites, and possibly turkeys, in the Southeast. First, all of the predators I am referring to are generalists, with broad diet and habitat requirements. Their broad “niche” tends to insulate their populations from declines in one or two prey items. Second, the predator community is diverse, with many species capable of compensating for a reduced effect of one or more species in a given year. For instance, rat snakes and raccoons, two principal predators of quail nests over the past 2-years (documented by video) were insignificant this year on most study sites. Despite the reduced effect of snakes and raccoons this year, nesting success remained relatively unchanged as other predators, principally fire ants, bobcats and opossums increased their rate of nest depredations. Finally, this overall predator “context” can vary from relatively low densities to very high densities at different locations, depending on many factors, such as proximity to hardwood lowlands. Because this stable, compensating, complex predator community may be present regardless of the quail population, if a quail population declines, due say to habitat succession, predation under these circumstances can, in theory, limit their response to improved habitat management. That is the predators may exhibit equal or greater predation pressure on declining or low bobwhite populations. For further discussion of these ideas, see the series on predation in the Quail Unlimited Magazine. Simple demographics can help to explain this situation, as you can have the same survival and productivity to maintain a bobwhite population at almost any density. But, to move a population from low to high densities requires increases in one or more of the demographic variables (survival, nesting rate, nest success, etc.)

So if predation is likely to be a management issue, why should you assess the predator abundance instead of beginning to trap? First, predators are not always the most important limiting factor, habitat is. Second, predator management is relatively expensive to conduct and it is not just a one-time deal it is an on-going process. Third, as professional biologists, we should not advocate predator removal if it is not justified. Therefore, our ultimate goal is to be able to apply integrated pest management (IPM) ideas to predation management in the Southeast, or Integrated Predation Management. Integrated Predator Management is an approach to predation management that utilizes regular monitoring to determine if and when predator reductions are needed and employs physical, mechanical, cultural, biological and educational tactics to keep predator numbers low enough to prevent intolerable damage. Applied to bobwhite populations, if we had measures of predator abundances that we could use to “test for” the impact of those predators on bobwhite populations, then we could better justify both the need and expense for predator management. By definition, wildlife managers should take a holistic approach to managing predation. Removing important predator habitats can reduce the impact of predators without the need for expensive removals. Well-planned ground cover management can reduce predation on bobwhites, and presumably other wildlife (see Fig. 1). Supplemental feeding of bobwhites may increase survival by reducing foraging times and therefore exposure to predators. It also can improve nesting output, reducing the impacts of losing a single nest to a predator. Emigration of wildlife off your property from a deficiency in habitat should be considered an additional mortality factor (a loss to the population). All of these topics are important aspects of an integrated approach to predation management. In addition to indices of predator abundance, other information should be used. For instance, when appropriate habitat management practices are in place at the appropriate scales of time and space, and the population of interest has failed to increase, then this is a sign that some aspect of the predator community may be limiting your population.

In the southeast, there is a tremendous amount of data to support that predators may limit bobwhite populations, but most of it is circumstantial. At Tall Timbers, we are cooperating with researchers at Auburn University, University of Georgia and Georgia-USDA Wildlife Services, to rigorously test these ideas. In association with Quail Unlimited, several members of the Southeast Quail Study Group, a professional association of biologists, began a research project to assess how different predator “contexts” affect quail demography (See Fig. 2). A detailed description of the issue and the project is available in a 3-part series in the Quail Unlimited Magazine. In doing this project, we devised a simple, perhaps even crude, first step for assessing predator abundance. We do not believe that this is the ultimate answer, but rather a first step along a path of research, trial and error. Our goal is to refine measures of predator abundance to determine when the predator community may have exceeded thresholds and is likely to be limiting bobwhite population growth. In this article, I am going to explain how you can assess the predator context on your land. It is relatively easy and inexpensive to conduct these surveys. All you need is some sand, a shovel and rake and some predator attractants.

Methodology

1. Conduct the survey during October or November. To be consistent with our results, these times are best. However, you can use this technique whenever predators are active.
2. Locate a scent stations at least 500 yards apart along unimproved roads, firebreaks or other linear travel lanes. Twenty-five stations will cover about 1000 –1500 acres. For smaller tracts of land, use fewer stations rather than packing in more stations. The distance between stations is important for maintaining some independence between stations. For larger tracts of land, say 5000 acres, use no more than 60 stations.
3. Stations should be placed on alternating sides of roads within 5 yards of the road edge. Choose a location that is accessible and relatively easy to clear of vegetation and debris.
4. Each station should consist of a 1.0 m diameter circle prepared by clearing vegetation. If the soil makes a suitable tracking surface then pulverize the soil to a depth of 1 inch. Alternatively, fine textured sand can be sifted onto the station to facilitate positive identification of tracks. We add mineral oil to the sand to improve the tracking substrate (see Fig. 3).
5. Place 1 fatty acid tablet (FAS) in the center of each station. Researchers have shown that FAS tablets elicit a good response from coyotes, gray foxes and raccoons. We have good visitation rates from armadillos, bobcats and other mammals as well. Be careful handling the FAS tablets (please read the label!). FAS tablets are reasonably priced and available from:Pocatello Supply Depot
   238 E Dillon St
   Pocatello, ID 83201
   (208) 236-6920
6. Stations should be sampled daily for tracks for a period of 3 to 5 days. Therefore, set stations up on day 1 and check them the next 5 mornings before noon. Smooth sand or sift new sand each morning. Attempt to choose days where rainfall is not likely to be a problem. Ignore data from mornings where rainfall destroyed tracks.
7. Record species and number of animals at each station. For instance, you may notice 1 raccoon and 1 opossum at the 3rd station.
8. Count the total number of visitations by raccoons, foxes, skunks, opossums, armadillos and bobcats. Divide this number by the total number of useable (rain-free) station days. Therefore if you ran 25 stations for 5 days you would divide your total number of predators counted by 125 station-days (i.e., 5 days * 25 stations). If it rained 1 night, then you would divide your total number of predators (those counted on rain-free mornings only) by 100 station-days (i.e., 4 days * 25 stations).

Interpretation of Scent Station Results

The key to a predator survey assessment is knowledge of how the value obtained relates to demographics of the managed species. In cropping systems, counts of pests or signs of damage are used to make decisions about investing in a pesticide application. The information below should be considered a first stab at relating predator context to bobwhite demographics. This research is not yet completed, so it will continue to be refined over the next several years. However, we believe it will give a landowner some insights into the predator community on their property and may provide some guidance as to making decisions for predator management.

If visitation rates are below 10%, for example if 9 predators visited 25 stations over 4 days, (i.e., 9/100 * 100 = 9%) our data suggests predation is not a limiting factor on the property. If visitation rates are between 10 and 20%, then depending on habitat, predation may be limiting in some years. However, predation is probably not providing enough pressure on the population to stop the bobwhite population from expanding. If visitation rates greatly exceed 20%, our data suggest the bobwhite population may be limited by predation and predation management may be warranted. The goal of predation management is to maintain an ecologically functioning predator community. Not to eradicate predators from a property.

This technique is still considered experimental and data obtained from it should be used as a guide only. These relationships were developed on areas with good to excellent habitat over most of the property. Therefore, on sites with low amounts of habitat these relationships are not meaningful (additional research on agricultural landscapes is in the planning stages). Other indications of bobwhite population growth should be considered along with this protocol. Tracking population growth, either with dog searches or call counts is important for assessing how management is progressing. If bobwhite populations are responding to habitat management, then predation management may not be needed. If bobwhite populations are not responding to habitat management, and scent station visitation rates are modest to high, predation management may be an ecologically and economically viable practice for increasing bobwhite numbers. I believe the IPM approach is the correct approach to tackling the issue of predator management on private lands. It will require continued research and refinement to be fully efficacious. But, the IPM approach is defensible and makes economic sense for landowners seeking to improve abundance and diversity of wildlife on their lands. Because, if predators are not limiting your wildlife populations, then why spend precious dollars on controlling them?

Literature Cited

Newton, Ian. 1998. Population Limitation in Birds. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

For more information read the following articles:

1. Part One of a Trilogy: Predation and Bobwhite: A Century Later
2. Predation and Quail: Part 2 of a Trilogy, The Cooperative Bobwhite Quail Predator Study
3. Predation and Quail: New Ground Effect and Implications for Management

Clemson’s Guide to Planting a Legal Dove Field

Extension Forestry & Natural Resources

Wildlife & Fisheries Biology  –  Environmental & Natural Resources  –  Forest Resources

 

Attracting Doves…Legally
^{South Carolina’s Official Planting Guide for Mourning Dove Fields}

April 2014

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Planting and cultivating dove fields are popular techniques used by South Carolina sportsmen, landowners, and land managers to attract doves, as well as to provide food and cover for a wide range of wildlife species. Careful planning, and an understanding of the legal guidelines for planting and managing dove fields, is essential to producing a successful and legal dove field. Best management practices for establishing any successful supplemental plantings for wildlife enhance seed germination, plant growth, and provide nutrients for wildlife for prolonged periods of time.  With proper planning and management, seeds produced by native broadleaf herbaceous plants (e.g. ragweed, crotons, lespedezas, beggar-weeds, partridge pea) and native grasses (e.g. panic grasses, paspalums, barnyard grass) can also provide food and cover for doves and other wildlife year-round.This publication provides guidelines for establishing a variety of seed-producing plants preferred by doves in South Carolina, as well as for common and legal small grain agricultural practices that also attract doves. Although doves may be attracted using a variety of small grain agricultural practices, the intent of these practices is for agricultural purposes and not for the sole purpose of luring and attracting doves for shooting, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service defines as baiting.  In addition, many of these practices are short-term and do not provide long-term benefits and value to doves and other wildlife, as compared to a variety of well-established wildlife plantings that produce seed, forage, and cover for wildlife year-round.

Practices Not Acceptable and Illegal

1. Sowing seeds several times in succession on the same ground.
2. Piling, clumping, or concentrating small grains on the ground.
3. Except as provided by recommendations in this document, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers seeds freshly planted or otherwise distributed for the purpose of luring, attracting, or enticing doves within gun range to be baiting, and hunting doves in these areas is illegal.

Manipulating Crops is a Legal Practice for Doves

Important Considerations

• Establishing dove fields with a variety of wildlife plantings provides food throughout the hunting season for doves and other wildlife.
• Certified Seed: Use of certified seed provides a level of insurance against poor germination, seed-borne diseases, and weeds. PVP varieties (covered under the Plant Variety Protection Act) can only be saved for seed by the grower for use on their own land.  Patented varieties cannot be saved for seed. Check with seed companies for legal requirements.
• To enhance dove use of fields, keep areas between rows weed-free by cultivating or using herbicides following label guidelines with special considerations to possible negative effects to pollinators and native bees.
• Plan for at least a portion of the field to mature two weeks prior to hunting.
• Scout fields several weeks in advance of hunting to determine use by doves.
• Limit dove shooting to 1-2 days a week. Too much shooting will cause doves to move to other areas.
• Manipulating portions of the field by mowing, chopping, burning, or disking prior to hunting will help expose seeds and attract doves to the field.

Recommended Plantings for Doves and Agricultural Practices that Attract Doves

The Ultimate Quail Dog!

In reality, it can be downright nasty to hunt in the South or anywhere else for that matter. They’re small birds that flush in large coveys, often flustering the hunter, and only offer a clean shot for a moment. Found throughout the country, from thick pine forests to sun-baked deserts and everywhere in between, the various species of quail require a special dog to hunt ‘em up—and the best dog for the job is often dependent upon where and when you’re going to pursue these delectable birds.

To find out more about quail dogs, we asked one of the best bird-dog trainers in the country, Ronnie Smith of Big Cabin, Okla., what they considered some of the best breeds.

English Pointer
Perhaps the epitome of a quail dog, the lean, well-muscled pointer is a tireless worker with great range.

“More than any other breed, pointers have the focus and high prey drive that makes them perfect for hunting quail,” says Smith, who guides hunters in South Texas where everything sticks, pricks or bites hunter and dog alike. Smith cites the breed’s short, slick coat as a huge benefit in hot climates and burr-filled areas. Dogs from big-running lines are useful when covering huge expanses of area, too.

Do you agree?  Is the English Pointer the best Quail Dog?

Bobwhite Quail Biology and Management – Clemson University 2009

 

Greg Yarrow, Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Extension Wildlife Specialist

^{Fact Sheet 7: Revised May 2009}

The bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) has long been considered the game bird of the South, and South Carolina’s past quail population has made it known as one of the best quail states.

A review of history reveals that quail populations have increased and declined as man and the progress of civilization have continued to alter the environment. Prehistoric quail populations were relatively low, due to vast, essentially unbroken straits of timber which provided poor habitat. Early land-use practices associated with pioneer settlements were typified by a patchy farming pattern which provided ideal quail habitat, and quail increased until around 1900.

From the early 1900s to the mid-1940s, quail population densities remained high and quite stable. However, since the mid-1940s, quail numbers have declined over much of the South. This downward trend is largely associated with deteriorating habitat conditions resulting from: 1) a change to cleaner and more mechanized farming methods, 2) the joining of small patchwork fields to mark large unbroken fields suitable for intensive cultivation, 3) the development of pastures for cattle, dairy or hay production, 4) intensified timber production and 5) the restricted use of fire in pine forest, which has created woodlands too dense for permanent inhabitation by quail.

Life History

In addition to longer, warmer days, the greening of foliage and flowering of plants, the bobwhite’s whistle is one of the earliest signals of the coming of spring and summer. Shortly after the first bird is heard, winter coveys slowly begin to break up and courting pairs may be observed. After initial mating has taken place, pairs are usually inseparable and the cock has little trouble defending his mate from other males. A mated pair will normally remain together until nesting and rearing of chicks is complete. After choosing a nesting site, the pair gathers available dead plant material (grasses, stems and pine needles) and constructs the nest in a slight depression in the soil. The female generally lays the first egg within a few days after the nest is finished, and usually will continue to lay one egg daily until the clutch is complete. Clutch size averages about 14 in South Carolina, with original nesting attempts containing a slightly greater number of eggs and renesting attempts slightly less than the average. Both male and female share the incubation, which lasts for 23 days. In most instances a pair of quail will hatch only one brood of young per year. However, if the nest is destroyed or abandoned prior to hatching, they will attempt to renest until a successful hatch or until the nesting season is over.

The nesting season in South Carolina runs from April to October with most hatching occurring from June to August. Commonly there are two or three hatching peaks brought on by widespread simultaneous nest failures. Nesting attempts may fail due to wild fires, detrimental weather conditions, predators, agricultural activity, or other environmental factors. Nest failures, however, are not necessarily bad in that they spread out the hatching dates and thus reduce the total effect of any mass mortality of the young due to natural disasters. Late hatched birds have a greater change of surviving until the hunting season, and a high percentage of late hatched birds is generally associated with good fall hunting.

As both cock and hen share the responsibilities of brooding young birds, either will continue to brood the chicks following the death of a mate. The young are considered full grown at 16 weeks of age, and the young of the year will normally make up the major portion of coveys which form during the fall.

Food and Cover Requirements

Quail are primarily feeders of fields and open forests. Their diet is mainly vegetable and composed largely of seeds, small fruits and green forage. Animal matter may be consumed year-round, but makes up a higher percentage of the diet during the warmer months. Insects are an especially important source of protein in the diet of young quail. Seeds of legumes are probably the most important native quail foods with grasses, tick trefoil and sedges being of secondary importance. Soft and hard mast and cultivated grains are also taken.

Some of the most important quail food items utilized in South Carolina include beggarweeds, partridge peas, milk peas, butterfly peas, the native and cultivated lespedezas (common, bicolor, Kobe, Korean), sesbania, paspalum, panic grass, ragweed, chocolate weed, blackberry, mulberry, pine, oak, sweetgum, mast and cultivated crops such as cowpeas, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and corn.

Although quail are commonly seen in the vicinity of open water and are occasionally observed drinking surface water, it is not essential since they normally receive their water requirements from dew, insects and succulent green vegetation.

In general, quail like a diversity of cover types including forests, brush, grass and cultivated lands. Bobwhites prefer areas where all types are found within their normal 40-acre range.

Bobwhite Facts and Myths

Over the decades popularity of the bobwhite quail has led to the evolution of a number of popular beliefs and tales. Many of these evolved locally, while others are heard throughout the range of the bobwhite. Nearly all have been handed down through successive generations of hunters, landowners and other interested individuals. While these beliefs add to the appeal of the species and reflect a popular interest, many are actually guilty of precipitating a waste of time, effort and money, misguidedly directed toward improving the welfare of the bobwhite. Most of these misconceptions provide little real benefit, and others hamper adequate harvest.

Probably one of the most popular misconceptions of how to permanently increase wild quail populations is through the stocking or release of pen-raised quail. This technique was widely practiced by many state wildlife agencies and private conservation groups in the Southeast during the late 1940s and early 1950s. After thorough evaluation, it was found to be extremely expensive and unsuccessful.

Most studies show that native quail (and there are essentially no areas in South Carolina without native birds) will occupy all of the suitable habitat available. Pen-reared birds released on a site are forced to live in areas not even suitable for occupation by the native birds. Since a surplus of wild quail is produced each year by natural production, stocked birds are likely to be eliminated as part of the surplus. In other words, it is not logical to expect a pen-reared bird to survive in habitat that will not even support native quail. Releasing birds shortly before the opening of the season has limited use, and is uneconomical since only a small percentage of the released birds are normally recovered. The danger of introducing disease into the native population from pen-raised birds is also a risk. The key to increasing quail populations is habitat improvement and control of predators.

Another popular and widespread tale is that many quail found in the Southeast today are descendants of a sub­species of bobwhite commonly called Mexican quail which were released in many sections of the Southeast during the 1930s and 1940s. Local lore suggests that these Mexican birds have all but replaced our native quail, as can be evidenced by their smaller size, different coloration, tendencies to run before dogs, to flush wild, and to fly to the nearest thicket or swamp regardless of the distance.

Although many of these behavioral traits are obvious to any dedicated bird hunter, research has shown that only a few of the Mexican quail survived, and the characteristics and traits of those which did interbreed with the native bobwhites were quickly diluted and have become obscure with time.

Size differences may be simply explained by the fact that some individual birds, as with deer, man and other creatures, are simply larger than other members of the same species. The hunter who kills an adult male and compares it with several immature birds is likely to conclude that he took the larger individual from a covey of the “old bob­whites.” Color variations are simply differences in color characteristics among individuals of the same species. Birds which appear to be light-colored do not have to be descendants of the Mexican quail, and dark or reddish birds do not necessarily come from the deep swamp, as some believe.

Changes in behavioral characteristics such as running, flushing wild and flying long distances to heavy cover are not the results of crossbreeding with Mexican quail but are our native birds’ adaptation to increased hunting pressure and habitat changes. The hen who runs ahead of the dogs, flushes wild and consistently heads to the nearest swamp when flushed is likely to survive to produce a brood the following spring, some of which may possess the same traits. On the other hand, the hen which holds tight or flies to a narrow fence row usually won’t be around the following spring to have the worries of motherhood.

Although some hunters complain about these new characteristics, most accept them as an added challenge in the sport of quail hunting. In any event, the ability of the quail to adapt to external pressures and a changing environment is one reason why this game bird has maintained population levels capable of sustaining considerable hunting pressure.

On a year following poor nesting or brood rearing conditions, such as hot dry summers or summers with unusually heavy rainfall, and when the fall quail population doesn’t appear to be up to normal expectations, it is common to hear, “Why doesn’t the state close the quail season this year?” Some dedicated and enthusiastic quail hunters will hang up their guns. While this dedication and interest in the welfare of the bobwhite is commendable, they had just as well enjoy that season’s hunt. Here’s why: Bobwhite quail (and most other small game species) are extremely short-lived. That is, of every 100 birds alive in the fall, between 75 and 80 will die or be killed within the next 12 months, and mortality rates will remain essentially the same in both hunted and unhunted populations. Hunting only removes surplus birds before they are lost to natural causes. For this reason, hunting in years of lower than average quail populations will not reduce the prospects for a quick return to normal levels, if food, cover and general habitat conditions remain unchanged.

Few subjects invoke more discussion and occasional anger than the topic of predation. It is common to hear “If it wasn’t for the foxes and the hawks, we’d have lots of birds,” or “Those old house cats wiped out three of my biggest coveys.” It’s true that foxes, hawks, cats and other predators kill an occasional quail, but before we condemn these animals, let’s take a close look at the actual effect predation may have on a game species.

Predation is the act of an animal killing and eating another, and it must be remembered that man is the most important, if not the most efficient predator on earth.

There are numerous factors controlling the extent of predation on game species. The available habitat is important, especially the quantity, quality and distribution of escape cover. The ratio of predators to prey is also important. Predation, therefore, is likely to be heaviest when unnaturally high populations of prey species exist in habitat which is incapable of support or protection.

The presence of a buffer species may also affect the amount of predation on quail or other game species. For example, if cotton rat populations are high, foxes will normally prey on these species instead of quail because they are easier to catch. However, if cotton rats are low in number or not available, the fox may prey on quail although he will have to work harder at taking them.

A thorough view of predation, although rarely noted, takes in its beneficial aspects. Predators may actually benefit game species (especially big game species) by removing surplus individuals, therefore preventing a population buildup beyond the carrying capacity of the land which may result in food shortages, habitat damage, and die-offs. Predators normally remove or catch the unfit (weaker, deformed, sick and diseased individuals). This helps to reduce the spread of disease and allows the fittest to survive and reproduce, resulting in an improved genetic quality of the species.

Predators often remove a number of species which compete with the desired game animal for the necessities of life. For example, intensive efforts to increase quail populations on one Georgia plantation by killing or trapping all hawks, owls, foxes, cats and skunks, resulted in a decline in the quail population instead of the expected increase. It was later learned that the predators were primarily preying on cotton rats. After the predators were removed, the cotton rat population increased to a density at which they were destroying a majority of all quail nesting attempts, resulting in fewer quail being produced. A certain amount of nest predation, however, may be beneficial in that the resulting renesting spreads the hatch out over a longer period of time, thus reducing the probability of losing all of a year’s production of chicks to a short period of bad weather.

As was stated earlier, natural predation, hunting, disease, exposure and other mortality factors take about 80 of every 100 birds present in the fall. The problem of the quail manager, is to improve land and habitat so that it can produce and carry a larger number of quail and not attempt to decrease the natural conservationist, Aldo Leopold said, “If a habitat can’t support game in spite of predators, it simply isn’t good game habitat.” Past and current studies however, have shown that unusually high populations of predators (raccoon, skunks, opossum, feral cats) can depress quail populations.

It is a common belief in many areas that a pair of bobwhites will rear more than one brood a year under ideal conditions. One theory holds that two nests are built by the pair, after which the hen lays two clutches of eggs, one of which is incubated by her and the other by the cock. A simpler tale is that a pair will bring off one brood which will be cared for by the male, while the hen lays and incubates another clutch. This situation is probably not as common as generally believed, although two broods from one pair during a single nesting season has been documented.

Two other tales concerning nesting are common in certain local areas. The most common of these holds that if you trap hens from one area and release them in areas where there is an abundance of unmated cocks (usually on your land), you can increase the quail population on that particular piece of land. This idea is erroneous or impractical for several reasons. First, you may trap a hen which is already mated and in some state of nest building or incubation. If this happens, you may have destroyed one potential hatch of young birds. Secondly, should the hen mate with an excess cock and begin the nesting process when nesting habitat is a limiting factor in the quail population, their nesting attempts will be in unfavorable habitat, and chances of a successful hatch are extremely low. Thirdly, and most important, this practice may actually result in less reproduction and a lower fall population by suppressing nesting attempts due to an artificially high spring population.

It boils down to the fact that an excess of males, whether it is quail, dogs or man, is a natural phenomenon and, regardless of the techniques or procedures tried, you can never permanently increase quail populations beyond what the habitat will support.

The second misconception regarding nesting is that if you see two cocks with one hen you had better kill one of the roosters or he will destroy the nest of the other two. The problem is to make sure you kill the right cock. Seriously, it is common, especially during the early part of the breeding season, to see more than one rooster courting a hen. Normally one of the roosters will be dominant and will successfully mate with the hen. Once the pair have mated, the cock has little trouble in driving away all callers and home wreckers.

One of the oldest ideas pertaining to quail hunting is the “shoot’em up to prevent interbreeding” theory. This idea has been unconditionally disproved. Birds hatched during the summer do not remain in family groups but may move to several different coveys during the “fall shuffle” of covey formation. This movement between coveys continues during the winter months and, during covey breakup in the spring, individual birds may move a distance of several miles. The reason unshot coveys can’t continue to increase until they are knee-deep is as we mentioned earlier, due to the high annual turnover rate (80 percent) in quail populations and the fact that birds will not increase beyond the bounds of the existing good habitat.

Habitat Development

The following quail management recommendations are general in nature but should provide some ideas as to what may be done. Specific management recommendations can be made only after an area has been investigated and a management plan prepared.

As has been mentioned many times previously, the only way to permanently increase quail populations on any property is through the maintenance and/or development of quality quail habitat. Quail must be grown as a crop of the land if we are to have better hunting or just more quail. All other theories, tales and methods simply will not work. The procedure involved in producing more quail, however, is relatively simple.

First, if you’re a landowner, hunter or land manager, think back over the years to places where you consistently found quail in winter. All will be different in appearance but they will all contain essentially the same elements: adequate cover within a short distance of a food supply containing several important food plants, either cultivated or native. Next look over the land, decide where you can afford to and would like to develop the land for birds, and try to determine just why birds are not using areas where you would like to have them. If adequate cover exists, grow food. If cover is scarce, develop it before growing food.

Developing Cover

Although there is generally an abundance of cover in most of South Carolina, in cases where it is lacking or needs improvement, it is necessary to know what constitutes good cover types. In any instance, the amount of cover needed depends on the quality. Preferred cover types are relatively thick above and quite open at ground level. If cover is of high quality, a relatively narrow fence row may be adequate or a covert of 75 to 100 feet square may be sufficient. Some of the better cover plants include wild plum, wild cherry, sumac, greenbriar, palmetto, the viburnums, sassafras, honeysuckle and grapevines. In most areas, however, adequate cover may be developed simply by protecting areas from such disturbances as fire, disking, mowing and over-grazing.

Woodlands, especially pine types, usually provide adequate cover because they generally make up in quantity what they lack in quality. However, tall trees provide little security and thick spots of shrubs or other vegetation may be required.

More important than developing cover for quail is the preservation of existing cover. Quail habitat is being destroyed daily to create more farmlands and pastures for cultivation. Much of this land is of marginal value to the farmer. For example, there are only two acres of land in two miles of grown up fence row eight feet wide, but those two acres could provide cover and some food for six to eight coveys of quail. One acre of high quality cover for every 10 to 12 acres is usually sufficient.

So far we have discussed cover used primarily for escape and protection. However, other types of cover are equally important, such as vegetative cover provided in transition zones.

Transition zones are simply a third habitat type developed between two existing and different habitat types. In most instances transition zones will be developed along an adjoining edge between fence rows, roads, ditch banks, timbered areas and cultivated fields.

Modern and intensive farming methods, coupled with the rising cost of farm machinery, dictates that landowners get the most return for their investments. This in turn has led to abandonment of tenant-type farming, where the common practice was to leave basically nonproductive field edges in native vegetation. While this could not be considered progressive agriculture, it did provide ideal habitat for quail. The practice of plowing and planting fields to the edge has done little to increase total production, since returns are poor on crops planted in the “shaded out” areas. These practices have, however, reduced the ability of that particular piece of land to produce quail.

In the past, these nonproductive areas also provided proper nesting cover around crop fields and created a suitable environment for a wide variety of insects. Insects provide high protein food important to adults and young birds during the nesting season. In addition, these zones grow many native quail food plants which provided seed during the winter months.

Transition zones between forest and field are extremely important because the bobwhite is an “edge” species, and the amount and quality of edge present usually dictates the abundance of quail on a particular area. Properly managed and maintained, these areas will provide much of a quail’s needs year round.

Transition zones may be established in the agriculturally unproductive field corners, edges or borders. These zones may be located where woodlands meet crop fields or exposed pastures, and along fence lines and roadways. These transition strips may cover all the unproductive field edge but should never be less than 15 feet wide. The species and composition of the vegetation which invades these areas depends on soil type, fertility, and pH.

The establishment of transition zones is perhaps the easiest and cheapest quail management practice on agricultural land because nature does the work. These zones may be established by simply removing strips of land from its previous use and protecting it from any disturbance such as disking, fire or grazing except for maintenance.

To maintain transition zones in a mixture of legumes, grasses and weeds, they must be burned, plowed or disked in early spring. It is not always necessary, however, to do this every year, and a good rule of thumb is that when more than 50 percent of the soil is covered in dead vegetation, the land needs maintenance. In South Carolina this will occur sometime between two and six years after establishment. Fields having transition zones around three or four sides may be maintained on one side annually, starting approximately 2 years after the transition zones are established.

The importance of transition zones in quail management depends largely upon the type of habitat adjoining cultivated areas. Transition zones are of less value in situations where early successional habitat types or ground cover immediately adjoin cultivated areas and are of more value where unusually dense or sparse ground cover exists.

Other types of vegetative cover are also important under certain conditions. Large fields and pasture, for example, contain areas within the center which are not utilized by quail. Generally, quail will not venture more than 100 feet into the open from the nearest adequate cover type. To provide access routes into these areas, large fields may be broken into smaller tracts by providing travel lanes across or into these fields. This may be accomplished by leaving undisturbed strips in native vegetation. The strips should be maintained by mowing, disking or burning one side of each strip every two or three years in the early spring. In order to receive some economic return from crop land removed from production by fallow strips, these areas may be established in pine seedlings on a spacing between 8’ x 10’ and 12’ x 12’. These plantings will provide a permanent cover type as well as some future fiscal return.

As quail are basically an annual crop, each year’s production of young and the number of quail available in the fall for hunting is dependent on numerous factors, one of the most important is the quality and quantity of nesting cover available during the nesting seasons.

Recent studies in the South suggest that the lack of proper nesting areas may be a factor limiting quail populations. Quail prefer to construct their nests in areas where ground is only partially covered with dead vegetation and along openings such as field edges, disked strips, road­ways, fence rows, fire breaks, and around cut-over areas and recent plantation sites. Areas containing thick ground vegetation are seldom used as it makes movement in the areas of the nest difficult for both the adult and young.

Although prescribed burning is often essential in quail management, areas containing the preferred type of nesting vegetation should be disked out and fire excluded. New nesting areas should be located every two years as ground vegetation quickly becomes too thick for use. Areas which have become too thick may be burned to develop future nesting sites.

Due to the importance of nesting habitat to quail production, efforts should be made to maintain as many of the preferred nesting sites as possible in the proper vegetative composition to encourage nesting. Because much of the lower part of South Carolina is poorly drained, nesting areas should be developed in locations which will minimize the risk of flooding.

Developing Food

Food is naturally an important part of any animal’s survival and is one key to proper quail management in some areas of South Carolina. It is beneficial to know the more important quail food plants and become familiar with favored food items in your areas.

In the past, quail management has been based on providing food during the critical late winter period. While this approach appears to be practical for northern areas, it is of less value in the South. Here, fall and winter food sources may be just as important in making an area attractive to birds and concentrating coveys for the hunting season as it is for survival.

Managing for quail food plants is generally no more complicated than being familiar with the preferred local food-producing plants and maintaining these as a byproduct of general farming. This generally may be done by knocking back plant succession through the manipulation of native vegetation by proper burning, mowing or disking.

In these days of rapidly climbing prices, it would probably be better to consider the cheapest and also the easiest method of increasing quail food supplies. Disking, except where it is practical to burn, is probably the cheapest method of manipulating the land to produce desirable quail food plants. Nearly all old fields which contain broomsedge or other vegetation will provide an abundance of native food plants through light disking of strips around the edge of these fields, allowing for a transition zone if needed. New ground may be used the second year, as an established strip will continue to produce food for several years.

Strips should always be established close to adequate cover. If an increase in seed production is desired, use fertilizers recommended for legumes and at rates dictated by soil test. Fertilizers may be applied to the strip shortly after disking is completed. The results of fertilization should be closely observed as in some instances undesirable grasses may be encouraged by the increase in soil fertility.

Disking in open pine woods is equally beneficial to disking in fallow fields. In addition to providing food, disking also creates an additional edge which may be used for nesting. Disking may be done any time following the first full frost until the following May.

Another method of providing food for quail is through the proper manipulation or harvest of the more important row crops planted in South Carolina. Corn is probably the best all-round cultivated food source for quail, as cornfields help to provide year-round quail needs. Soybeans and smaller grains and sorghums are also good.

Present day methods of planting corn in thick stands, especially for silage, has reduced the overall value of these fields for quail since dense stands and herbicide applications seriously reduce the volunteer growth of annual weeds and other plants preferred by quail. All mod­ern harvest methods, however, waste corn and this will provide food for quail a short time after harvest. If possible, a couple of rows of corn should be left standing around the field edge after harvest is complete. Portions of these may be rotary mowed at intervals during the winter months to supply food for coveys during this period.

Soybeans and grain sorghums are of more value to birds when a few rows are left standing on field edges. The vegetative part of these plants offer some cover and, in most cases, seeds will scatter out gradually providing a source of food over a period of time. All of these food supplies should, when possible, be left close to available escape cover. Late summer or fall plowing should be avoided whenever possible. If this practice is necessary, unplowed strips containing crop residue should be left around field edges.

In areas where disking, burning, or available row crops will not provide enough desired foods, plantings of various high quality quail food plants may be established. Plantings for quail may be divided into two general types. One is for fall use to concentrate birds for hunting and the second for winter use during periods of low food availability. A combination of the two is probably best. Late winter food helps to make an area attractive to the birds year round. Fall plantings help to hold birds during the hunting season and may draw some birds from adjoining unmanaged land.

Numerous plantings have been used to provide food for quail. Some of the better ones for fall include annual lespedezas (common, Korean and Kobe), browntop millet, Florida beggarweed and sesbania. Low maintenance late winter foods include bicolor lespedeza and large partridge pea. All of these plants require good seedbed preparation and fertilization and some require cultivation. In many areas of coastal South Carolina, bicolor patches are difficult to establish due to high deer populations. Recent work in these areas have indicated that two other quail food-producing shrub lespedezas, Lespedeza thumbergii and Lespedeza japonica, may be more resistant to deer depredation. Specific planting recommendations on these quail food plants are given in the appendix section of this reference manual.

Size of the plantings should be at least 1/16 of an acre and normally should not be larger than 1/4 acre. Plantings should be in large, narrow strips about 15 to 20 feet wide paralleling field borders, forest edges, roadways, grown-up ditches or other areas adjacent to suitable escape cover.

Plantings may also be used to improve suitable woodland types of quail in order to provide additional food and to concentrate birds for hunting. Woodland plantings should be in strips containing both a fall and a winter food plant. One planting for every 15 to 20 acres should be adequate.

In general it is difficult to maintain good quail populations on land established in temporary or permanent pastures. Temporary pastures usually have little value for quail since they are planted in the fall and are usually heavily grazed the following spring and summer. Permanent improved pastures may be of some value to quail if they are properly managed. Moderately grazed permanent pastures will provide some nesting cover. In some areas, food may be provided by adding common lespedeza to the pasture mixture. Necessary mowing may be done in early spring providing enough cover is left for nesting. Summer mowing should be avoided if possible as it may destroy nests or cause them to be abandoned. If summer mowing or hay harvest is necessary, a strip approximately 50 feet wide would be left undisturbed on field edges. Normally this practice will greatly reduce the number of quail nests destroyed.

Large pastures should have areas of existing cover protected, or developed if none exists. Usually these cover spots should be ¼ acre in size and protected from grazing. If possible, encourage cover plants which are seldom grazed and which will offer some protection to existing food plants. A better method of protecting food and cover patches is through fencing.

Forest Management for Quail

High quail populations and good quail hunting are normally associated with cultivated areas and farmlands, but properly managed forest types can also provide quality quail hunting. With an ever increasing acreage of land being converted to pine tree production in South Carolina, development of timber management practices that provide the needed habitat is essential if quail are to continue to be abundant game birds.

Of all the techniques used in forest management, prescribed burning is probably the cheapest and most effective method known to improve quail habitat. During the past several decades, we have gone through a succession of guidelines and advice from both state and federal agencies; encouraging the use of fire in certain types one year, and discouraging its use the next. Today we know, through much research and study, that the proper use of fire in pine types is beneficial not only in increasing timber production, but also in improving these woodlands for quail as well as for deer, wild turkey, and many other wildlife species.

Many quail hunters have been frustrated by birds located in open fields which flew to pine woods containing a dense understory of hardwood sprouts which makes penetration by the hunter difficult and shooting impossible. In these instances, the quail, hunter and timber could all benefit from the proper use of fire. Quail benefit by the opening of a new preferred habitat, through a reduction of dense understory vegetation, through a reduction in rough areas likely to harbor predators, through the reduction of ground litter which will make more seeds available, through an increased food supply the following fall due to an increase in legume and other quail food plant germination in the spring, through additional nesting habitat and probably through a reduction in both internal and external parasites. The hunter benefits from the opening of new accessible hunting territory, through better shooting conditions and more enjoyable hunts. The timber benefits in many ways, including the quick release of needed nutrients into the soil and through reduced competition from the understory hardwoods killed back by prescribed burning.

Since the proper use of fire depends on many factors such as topography, amount of fuel, combustibility, relative humidity, temperature, wind direction and velocity, time of day and the composition, age and condition of the timber to be burned, it is wise to seek the advice of your local South Carolina Forestry Commission representative prior to burning.

There are, however, some general guidelines which may be useful in burning for quail. Burning should normally be conducted only in forests managed for pine production. Mature hardwoods and pine regeneration areas may be seriously damaged by a small amount of fire. Burning should be conducted annually or semiannually during the early morning or late afternoon hours between the middle of February and the last of March. The use of fire after April may do more harm than good. With rare exceptions, only a backfire (into the wind) should be used. Headfires may be necessary in some instances to clear dense, rough areas of hardwood sprouts or other vegetation, but should be used with care. Backfires should normally be burned with a steady breeze of five to eight miles per hour.

Relative humidity is important in that it affects the combustibility of the ground litter. As the humidity falls, the fire is likely to become hotter. Temperature affects fire in that an increase in combustibility and better burning conditions are generally associated with higher temperatures. Fires normally burn faster up hill than down, but the use of fire on steep slopes may remove ground cover material and speed up soil erosion. Fire breaks should be available should the fire get out of control. A state law requires that a representative of the South Carolina Forestry Commission be notified of any plan to burn.

The use of fire during February and March on open farmlands provides some of the benefits of disking at a reduced cost. Fire may be used in some locations to reduce dense herbaceous vegetation and provide for an increase in quail food plants. Fields of broomsedge containing one to several years’ growth may come in to various native quail food plants following a winter burn.

In addition to forest characteristics affected by fire, other factors such as the density of the timber stand should also be considered in quail management. In general, quail prefer moderate to open pine stands. If quail are to be managed in addition to timber, long rotations (saw timber production) are preferred over short rotations (pulpwood production) as the latter usually result in dense timber stands which provide little quail food or cover after the first three or four years. Properly managed long rotations in which merchantable trees are removed and natural reproduction periodically thinned can provide good quail habitat. If you are interested in optimum quail habitat, timber harvest and thinning should be extensive enough to reduce the stand density 25 to 30 percent below that recommended for maximum timber production. This will provide better than average quail habitat providing the understory is kept open and the timber thinned.

If maximum quail management on timbered land is desired, timber harvest and regeneration may be used to develop permanent one to two acre forest openings which may be planted to a variety of the quail food crops discussed earlier. Permanent openings should average one per 15 to 20 acres. If permanent openings take too much land from timber production, food patches may be established in existing timber stands as discussed previously.

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This article is a publication of Clemson University Cooperative Extension’s Forestry & Natural Resources team.
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Can Quail Rise Again? by Rob Simbeck – South Carolina Wildlife Magazine 2012 Article

Reversing the decline of bobwhite quail populations in the Southeast is an enormous challenge, but a dedicated group of small game biologists and land managers believe they may have a new formula for success.

Just a few decades ago, most people living in South Carolina’s rural countryside were familiar with the bobwhite quail. In fact, the plump, reddish-brown bird with the sharp two-note whistle was a common sight and sound throughout the southeastern and midwestern United States.

Those days are gone. Knowledge of the bobwhite is now largely generational. For many older Palmetto State residents, quail hunting was as much a part of growing up as learning to drive, but most younger South Carolinians have never seen or heard a wild quail. Jerald Sholar, South Carolina quail project coordinator for Tall Timbers, a Florida-based nonprofit dedicated to research, conservation and education relating to the southern pine ecosystem, sees himself as being on the cusp of those groups.

“I’m forty-two and my father hunted them,” says Sholar, “I’m part of the last generation of people who remember them from their heyday. But I also remember my father’s last bird dog. He said to me, ‘I’m not going to get another because I don’t have any more birds to hunt.’ ”

It’s a scenario that has played out with any number of creatures for which there have been drastic declines and, in some cases, subsequent restorations, from turkeys, wood ducks and white-tailed deer to bluebirds, bald eagles and alligators.

But quail have been especially hard hit. Their numbers have declined by 80 percent or more since the 1960s, according to most estimates, and their call, like that of the whippoorwill, is just a memory across much of their former range.

The strongest concentrations of quail remaining in South Carolina are on plantations managed specifically for them along the inner coastal plain, and in pockets of row crop agriculture that provide favorable open-land habitat in the Midlands and Pee Dee. Overall numbers, though, are a far cry from the days when the Palmetto State was, in the words of S.C. Department of Natural Resources Small Game Project Supervisor Billy Dukes, “a hotbed of quail hunting.”

“The majority of quail hunters during the heyday,” says Dukes, “were just hunting as a normal subculture, a byproduct of normal agricultural and silvicultural practices. They were not hunting on quail plantations, but on family farms.”

Changes in those practices are the primary reason for the species’ decline and the main challenge to its widespread reintroduction.

Much of the eastern and lower midwestern United States was once prime quail habitat. There were longleaf pine and oak savannas in the Southeast, and prairies and rangelands in the Midwest and southern Great Plains. Grasses and wildflowers providing food and cover were renewed by regular fires sparked by lightning or set by Native Americans. As European settlers moved across the continent, they cleared forests, planted small agricultural plots with weedy edges, and allowed cattle to feed on native grasses. All of that was good for quail, but all of that changed, beginning in roughly the mid-20th century.

“The decline of quail since then,” says Dukes, “is directly related to large-scale habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation caused by big changes in the way we use the land.”

Large, clean-edged monoculture crop fields replaced the patchwork quilt of small farms, and pesticides eliminated large numbers of the insects that are a major food source for quail chicks and hens. Many forests went in one of two directions: many open forests with lush, grassy understories that weren’t developed for agriculture were simply neglected and allowed to close up, becoming shaded and barren underneath, while intensive plantation forestry on other acreage produced pine monoculture forests similarly unsuited for quail. Fire was nearly eliminated as a grassland habitat management tool across most of the quail’s range. One of the biggest changes, according to National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative Director Don McKenzie, came with the introduction of non-native grasses for use as cattle forage in pastures.

“The federal government started aggressively promoting new kinds of highly competitive grasses from other parts of the world for cows beginning in the 1940s and continuing to this day,” says McKenzie. “Fescue, bermudagrass and bahiagrass were promoted and subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as virtual miracle grasses, and they are user-friendly for producers and adequate to good for cows, but they’re terrible for quail habitat. In short, whether on crop lands, grazing lands or timber lands, we’ve disconnected quail from the way we produce [agricultural and forest] products.”

The cumulative effect of all these land-use changes has been profound, and bobwhite conservation in North America is at a crossroads.

“The next few decades may be our last opportunity to halt the declines, stem widespread localized extinctions of bobwhites, and restore populations enough to begin creating new memories for many in future generations,” says the Executive Report for NBCI Version 2.0, a newly updated strategy aimed at bringing back quail (read it online at http://bringbackbobwhites.org).

The revised strategic plan represents the unified efforts of twenty-five state fish and wildlife agencies, as well as various conservation groups and research institutions. Coordinated by the National Bobwhite Technical Committee, a multi-state group of more than one hundred professional wildlife biologists, managers and academics, the plan sets the goal of bringing wild quail populations back to the levels they were at in 1980. The NBTC has its roots in South Carolina, beginning here in 1995 as the Southeast Quail Study Group.

DNR’s Dukes, who has been part of the effort since the beginning, credits former DNR Small Game Project Supervisor Breck Carmichael with getting the initial effort started.

“Breck felt like there should be a meeting of quail biologists to discuss and collaborate and produce a multi-state approach to the problem,” says Dukes.

That was the first step. Since 1995, that approach has expanded to include research, fieldwork, education and lobbying. NBCI Director McKenzie often stresses the importance of those last two items to the scientists in the group.

“Don’s main refrain,” says Dukes, “is that we as quail biologists think that quail restoration is about habitat, but more and more we need to realize that it is [also] about people, politics and money.”

On the political side, the most closely watched bill nationally is the federal Farm Bill, which is up for reauthorization this year. Its importance stems from the fact that it provides more money for conservation practices and affects more private land across more states than any other state or federal program. The focus of the programs supported by the Farm Bill has changed somewhat through the decades, thanks to intensive lobbying by outdoor groups.

“Beginning in 1990,” says Dukes, “wildlife conservation was identified as an equal objective with soil and water conservation. Programs that called for habitat buffers and long-leaf pine planting, among other things, probably would not have happened without the NBTC and other conservation partners like Southeast Partners in Flight.”

The U.S. Congress is expected to replace the current version of the bill, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, in the near future, and funding for wildlife conservation could be facing major reductions. The version proposed by the Senate trims $23 billion, according to Bridget Collins, NBCI’s agricultural policy coordinator.

“About $6 billion of that will come from conservation,” says Collins, “and about 60 percent of that is from the Conservation Reserve program, one of the most important programs for wildlife and game species.”

The CRP provides annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to agricultural landowners who establish long-term, resource-conserving vegetative covers on eligible farmland. The Senate proposal reduces the maximum number of acres in the program from thirty-two million to twenty-five million.

“This will be a blow for wildlife,” says Collins. “We’re losing seven million acres, and that does translate into less conservation. Obviously, fiscal times are tough, and this is the trade-off we’re presented with.”

“It doesn’t look good, to be honest,” adds Sholar. “We have a chance of losing a lot of ground, and that bothers me because we’ve got farmers in this state who use those programs because they’re interested in quail and other wildlife. Those incentive payments are a wonderful way to guarantee that we’ll have a little bit of habitat in those parts of the state. Does it make me believe that without it we’re going to go backwards? No, because those landowners who really want it are going to continue to do the things they’re doing.”

States, including South Carolina, are working with Tall Timbers, the NBCI and others to help individual landowners create and maintain the kind of habitat that quail – and by extension many other species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and plants – can thrive in.

“Predator control, supplemental feeding and all the other factors that can contribute don’t become important until we get the habitat right,” says Sholar.

At that point, though, landowners can take advantage of some promising new methods of boosting populations based on decades of research.

“It’s no longer just a matter of getting the habitat right and then waiting,” Sholar says. “There are techniques we are improving on at Tall Timbers that will help jumpstart populations in a much shorter time than would have been the case otherwise.”

There are promising larger-scale efforts underway as well. The U.S. Forest Service has used thinning and prescribed fire on eight thousand acres in the Sumter National Forest to improve conditions for quail and other grassland species, and monitoring has documented an increase in quail numbers. In Arkansas, the Forest Service used the same techniques on 100,000 acres of short-leaf pine and bluestem savanna in the Ouachita National Forest and found that quail, red-cockaded woodpeckers and other species rebounded even more quickly than expected.

Still, the challenges are enormous. The ninety million acres of historic longleaf pine forest and open savanna that once spread across the southern U.S. providing premium quality quail and grassland wildlife habitat have been reduced to fewer than three million acres. The entire savanna ecosystem itself is endangered. Everyone is aware of the challenges and constraints caused by land fragmentation, continued development, sprawl and changed farm practices.

“Even with large tracts, say ten thousand acres or more,” says Sholar, “we are still looking at islands of habitat in a sea of hostile territory, if you will. I think that the best we can hope for is pockets. My hope is that here in the Lowcountry, where we’ve still got fairly large contiguous tracts owned by families, that we can help those individuals see that they have a choice. We’re hoping that’s going to catch on, and we’re going to have a few hundred thousand acres in the Lowcountry and Midlands on into the Piedmont. There is still pretty good land that isn’t very populated, and within those areas you have the opportunity to create pretty good quail populations. Farmers can be shown how to be more quail friendly.”

“The good news,” adds McKenzie, “is that we know how to reconnect quail and working lands – on crop lands, on grazing lands and on forest lands. The trick is to do it on a big enough scale. We’re not trying to create hands-off preserves or refuges, just make reasonably modest adjustments to how working land is being used, so that it can produce both commodities and quail.”

Their efforts and the optimism behind them bode well for the future of wildlife conservation in general.

“Good quail habitat is good wildlife habitat,” says Sholar. “We are absolutely having an impact on other species of concern like the loggerhead shrike, red-cockaded woodpeckers, buntings and others who require early successional habitat.”

Both Tall Timbers and the NBCI remain committed and guardedly optimistic.

“There is hope for bobwhites,” says McKenzie. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I see a path to success. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

Rob Simbeck writes the “For Wildlife Watchers” feature for SCW.

http://www.southcarolinawildlife.com/articles/septoct2012/quailrise.html

Where to begin?

WE know there is a problem, but what can we do?  There is a wealth of information available on land management, controlled burns, etc. And much research has been given to this issue.  Here are a couple of thoughts that don’t get as much discussion.

While birds still thrive on large, intensively managed quail plantations, their numbers have declined in most of South Carolina.  The landscape has changed so much that extensive tracts of land have become completely unproductive for quail and upland wildlife.

Many agricultural practices, including livestock grazing, are often blamed for the loss and degradation of habitat for quail and other wildlife.  However, in many rangeland systems, grazing can actually be an effective management tool to create and maintain a good habitat for quail.

What is the ideal quail habitat?  Often referred to as a “crazy quilt” of plants scattered about the landscape – including small patches of bunchgrasses for nesting cover, weeds for foraging and other shrubs such as Bi-colored Lespedeza and  Sericea Lespedeza. Moderate grazing, which usually results in more open and diverse rangeland, produces the best habitat for quail.  Heavy grazing, particularly when shrubs and other non-forage plants are being controlled, may lead to a “golf-course effect,” providing little forage for cattle and no food or cover for quail.

Unfortunately, there is no magic stocking rate or number of animals that will always provide moderate grazing intensity and maintain the crazy-quilt that quail need.

Habitat restoration and predator management practices can boost quail populations.  Predators kill many quail each year in South Carolina.  The most common predators of bobwhites are skunks, raccoons, armadillos, opossums, bobcats, foxes and coyotes. Other known nest predators are snakes, several bird species(crow & raptors) and fire ants.  Most often at least one egg in the clutch will hatch and some studies have observed hatching success for ground nesting birds when predator control was conducted.

Controlling fire ants, which are one of the leading causes of low quail numbers throughout the southeast, will also help quail populations rebound.  In fact controlling fire ants in heavily infested areas could double quail populations.

( Bi-Colored Lespedeza)

By His Hand…….

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

We have been instructed by God to conserve our great land.  Please remember to pray and ask God that if it be his will to guide us and give us the wisdom and strength that we need to bring back our wildlife.  To be good stewards of his land.

Dire Straits

UWC was created to inform you that we are serious about conserving our wildlife.  There is a need to make the public aware of the serious decline of Bobwhite quail in our land.  We have seen the last of the glory days.  The 1970 to early 1990’s are long gone.  It is very frustrating to watch the few covey’s that remain scattered over our farmland as they try and try to come back.  This is where my commitment and passion to help them comes from.  We need to do more, now. There has been a small increase in population due to efforts to bring back the quail habitat, but there is a lot more that can be done.  One thing that I would like to see discussed more is predation.  If you’re not familiar with the term, it means: the preying of one animal on others.  We’re not discussing this topic enough. Big plantation have the money and manpower that normal farmers don’t have access to, that’s where we can help.  Our concept is farmer to farmer.  Quail hunting is a valuable tradition that deserved to be protected.