Bobwhite....historical data please

H

HighBrass68

Banned
Trust everyone is having a good weekend and hopefully some much needed moisture out west!


I was re-reading Tom Huggler's book: Quail Hunting in America.

In the first chapter the author sites harvest data on bobwhite's from 1970 and 1980.

Quote: "in 1970, hunters shot about 35 million bobwhites. In 1980, hunters bagged about 22 million bobwhites.

OK here is my question and comments:

1. if in the we did harvest that many bob's during the 70's and early 80's, roughly how many quail did the US have total?

2. What do we think the current total population is today?

3. I read somewhere recently that we have less than 4 million (total) bobwhites in the US today...is this close to correct.
 
I really don't know how many we have. Troy,(Prairie Drifter) would be most likely to know, or know where to find the numbers.

But I have hunted quail in KS since the mid 70s. There are a lot few quail now than there were then. At least in this area.

I have logs and maps dating back into the mid 80's. Many of those coveys are still there, but many are gone. If I had to make a guess, we have about 50% of the birds we had then, at best.

Or to put it another way, the worst years back then had more birds than the best years now. :(
 
MDC says that it hatches over 1 million bwq per year. If that statistic is accurate, then there are a lot more than the 4 million total bobwhites in the U.S., because the quail hunting in Missouri SUCKS!
 
Someone should email Dr. Fred Guthery @ Oklahoma State University. He could probably round up some fairly accurate numbers....of course this year will be an extreme low for OK and Texas anyway.

Also, I read his book last winter "On Bobwhites" Every quail hunter should read it.

The number is definitely more than 4 million. I believe OK was estimating their harvest between 500,000 and 1,000,000 over the last few years. Not too many years ago, OK was @ 2,000,000.
 
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"NBCI GOAL: Restore northern bobwhite populations range wide to an average density equivalent to that which existed on improvable acres in 1980. This will necessitate impacting habitat on about 7 per cent of 81.1 million acres of farm, forest, and rangeland so as to increase the current quail population by 2.7 million coveys."

http://www.qu.org/seqsg/nbci/nbci.cfm

Still doesn't answer your question directly, but I figure if the goal is to restore the population to 2.7 million coveys, I'm guessin' there are more than 4 million bobs currently living in this country:)

27 million would be more like it assuming there are 10 birds per covey. I didn't find their expectations for covey size.

Today....my "how many marbles in the jar" guess.....8,275,523. I hope I get something for this if I'm right:D
 
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I do not believe Quail can be restored to those numbers. In Oklahoma 90% of property is private land. Without an incentive ($$$$) I just do not see it.
 
I know that Kansas is starting to make a sincere effort in restoring bobwhites in the area where I grew up. You won't be able to hunt that area any time soon as it is private land, but it is an area where there used to be a ton of quail and now there are a few left. I applaud KDWP for taking this action. I honestly think that KDWP has taken its quail for granted over the last 15-20 years and doing so has led to poor quail management and education.

My father-in-law and brother-in-law complain all the time about how they could go out, without a dog and move 6-8 covies on their 80 acres of land and he just doesn't know what happened. I asked him where all the fescue came from, he planted it for hay. I complemented on how clean his corn field looked, he thanked me and said that it was the cleanest he's ever seen it and this outfit does a great job of keeping it clean. He's got very little grass around his fields just outside of his house. The only saving grace is the native grass owned by adjoining landowners. There's a covey (two in good years) on that 80, but you can almost map the decline of his quail population with changes in his farming practices. But, he's making more money than he's ever made off of that little piece of land and he's happy with it. The farm is cleaner than it has ever been and it makes maintenance a lot easier. At least there are quail still there, can't say the same for the rest of that area of the state.
 
KATroutman13 said:
I know that Kansas is starting to make a sincere effort in restoring bobwhites in the area where I grew up. You won't be able to hunt that area any time soon as it is private land, but it is an area where there used to be a ton of quail and now there are a few left. I applaud KDWP for taking this action. I honestly think that KDWP has taken its quail for granted over the last 15-20 years and doing so has led to poor quail management and education.

My father-in-law and brother-in-law complain all the time about how they could go out, without a dog and move 6-8 covies on their 80 acres of land and he just doesn't know what happened. I asked him where all the fescue came from, he planted it for hay. I complemented on how clean his corn field looked, he thanked me and said that it was the cleanest he's ever seen it and this outfit does a great job of keeping it clean. He's got very little grass around his fields just outside of his house. The only saving grace is the native grass owned by adjoining landowners. There's a covey (two in good years) on that 80, but you can almost map the decline of his quail population with changes in his farming practices. But, he's making more money than he's ever made off of that little piece of land and he's happy with it. The farm is cleaner than it has ever been and it makes maintenance a lot easier. At least there are quail still there, can't say the same for the rest of that area of the state.
Click to expand...


It was as if I was reading about why the pheasant population in MI is what it is... Same story here. :(
 
there's a real big farm a bit south of Bendina in NE Kansas- nobody really hunted it because they didn't want hunters bothering the cattle or crops- and didn't want to worry about people on the land

barber mentioned I should go talk to them my Britt's might like it
hunted that for some 15 years- the last two that barber talked to much

I could hunt it hard as much as I so desired- lots of quail and some pheasants- they wanted me to not shoot pheasants- no problem- money guys started coming up knocking on doors- they were upset- thinking maybe I was the one talking- suppose so- that barber was a pretty nice guy- didn't believe in hunting- made a mistake

short of it was- they allowed it to be WIHA- the property was pounded for two seasons-

I stopped in once- owners said "can hunters kill all the birds"
simply said- with good dogs and hunting every day as it looks like- yes
 
I think the right answer is nobody knows how many quail there used to be because as stated previously they were taken for granted,a combination of habitat changes encouraged by agribusiness and the USDA, and infatuation with "glamour" species like deer and turkeys, by the wildlife departments. Now trying to restore what we could have saved, at much less trouble and expense. I think there are a heck of a lot fewer doves than 30 years ago as well, I think we can drive them to the brink in another 20 years or so. Nobody pays any attention to doves either.
 
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