Annual abundance of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and scaled quail
(Callipepla squamata) fluctuates drastically in Texas, which complicates a quail
manager’s ability to forecast quail abundance for the ensuing hunting season. The Texas
Quail Index (TQI) was a 5-year citizen-science project that evaluated several indices of
quail abundance and habitat parameters as predictors of quail abundance during the
ensuing fall. I found that spring cock-call counts explained 41% of the variation in fall
covey-call counts for all study sites in year 1–4, and 89% of the variation in year 5.
Further investigation revealed that year 5 was a drought year and had a significantly
lower percentage of juveniles in the hunter’s bag. These results suggest that during
drought years, fall quail abundance is more predictable than during non-drought years
and that low breeding success may be the reason. If these data are correct, quail
managers should have a better ability to predict the declines of their fall quail abundance
in the dry years.
The TQI relied on citizen scientists (cooperators) to collect data. Since most
(66.1%) cooperators dropped out of the program, and <8% of all data sets were complete, I surveyed the cooperators by mail to determine the rate and cause of
cooperator decline and to identify characteristics of a reliable cooperator (i.e., one that
did not drop out of the study). I found that cooperator participation declined earlier each
year for year 1–4, and that year 5 demonstrated a steady trend with the least amount of
cooperators. Most respondents who dropped out (61.5%) reported their motive for
leaving was that it was too time consuming. I found no difference in mean cooperator
demographics, satisfaction, or landownership goals between those respondents who
dropped out and those that did not. However, 38% of those who dropped out were not
completely satisfied with communication from TQI coordinators compared to only 15%
of those who did not drop out, indicating that communication, or perhaps overall
volunteer management, might have been improved. Future studies should maintain
better communication with participants, require less time, and provide an incentive for
retention.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3090 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Reyna, Kelly Shane |
| Contributors | Morrison, Michael, Rollins, Dale |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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