Fall/Winter Survival
The graph in Figure 1 represents annual survival for the Alabama properties during 02/03 and 03/04 and compares these 2 years to the long term over-winter average in Georgia. Over-winter survival continues to be surprisingly good on the study sites. Our long term studies have shown that the number of birds surviving to the breeding season is one of the primary driving forces behind population performance. Good winter cover combined with supplemental feeding is apparently keeping the birds safe through the over-winter period.

Spring/Summer Survival
Spring/Summer survival has been monitored for 2 years. Backing up previous studies, we are finding that higher percentages of unburned cover equals higher quail survival, nest production, and nest success. During spring 2003, Site 1 had 10% of the quail cover unburned, and Site 2 had approximately 70% unburned. Spring/Summer survival was significantly higher on Site 2 (see Figure 2.). The amount of cover burned in spring 2004 was much different for these same areas. On Site 1, permanent fire lanes were established before burning, and unburned cover increased to 50%. Survival increased significantly over the previous spring/summer on Site 1 (Figure 3.). On Site 2 in 2004, the amount of unburned cover decreased to 10% and survival (Figure 4.) was much lower compared to Site 1 with 50% unburned. Clean burning over many acres is obviously a limiting factor to quail populations, because the birds are exposed to predation and available nest sites are reduced. Unburned cover should range between 30 and 50% of a quail hunting course.

The causes of death for radio-tagged quail on each study site and annual percentages for each predator type are represented in Tables 1 and 2. As shown by these tables, avian predators are responsible for a high percentage of over-winter mortality, while other predator types make up the lower percentages.

For both study sites, predation significantly increases by all predator types, except human, during the nesting season. Again, this is after spring burning when birds are more exposed. Also, the coveys are broken up and don’t have safety in numbers and are more vulnerable to mammalian predation while nesting.

Besides data collected from radio-tagged quail, the predation issue continues to be examined by a scent station survey. This survey gives an index to the mammalian predator population on the study sites. The survey is conducted each June and October. A scented disk is placed in a 3 foot diameter circle of tracking sand every ½ mile along roads and checked like a trap line. Twenty stations were placed on each study site and checked for 5 consecutive nights. The index is the average number of “hits” per night by known nest predators (raccoons, opossums, armadillos, bobcats) calculated as a percentage. Table 3 represents the predator indexes over the past 2 years on the study sites.

An intensive predator control program was implemented on Site 1 following the October 2003 survey. As evidenced by Table 3, the mammalian predator index continues to decrease on Site1. The annual percent of mammalian predation on Site 1 has also decreased after initiation of the predator control program, as seen in Table 1.

One of the most important parameters we measure is reproductive output from radio-tagged quail. Table 4 represents reproductive parameters for each study site over the last 2 nesting periods. Past experience has shown that total reproductive performance is greatly affected by poor adult survival and a high mammalian predator count. As recorded in Table 4, the best overall reproduction numbers in 2003 were on Site 2, and in 2004 were on Site 1. These were nesting periods in which adequate cover remained after burning and mammalian predator counts were at their lowest recorded numbers.