 LITTLE
ROCK – Over the past decade, Arkansas' quail population has mirrored the
steady decline reported all over the southeastern United States. The
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is working diligently to reverse that
trend by asking quail hunters for their help in compiling data on the
game bird.
In general, bobwhites increased in numbers
throughout the South until 1890 and remained relatively high until 1940.
Since 1940, the trend has been downward. In Herbert L. Stoddard’s 1931
classic book "The Bobwhite Quail," Stoddard said that "the increase of
the human population and with improvements in farming methods and
farming machinery and expansion of the livestock industry, came
conditions less favorable to the species. As a result, difficulty is now
being experienced maintaining these birds in numbers in many parts of
their range.”
The AGFC's quail program coordinator Steven Fowler says that even
though the agency has population data on quail trends in Arkansas,
hunting data is needed. "We have not collected data on quail hunting and
harvest in a number of years. It's time to find out what is going on in
the world of Arkansas quail hunting," Fowler said.
Fowler said he is asking quail hunters for their assistance in
collecting wild quail harvest and hunting information. "To obtain this
information, I am asking for their voluntary participation in a quail
hunter survey that we have developed. This survey is simple, yet it will
provide a great deal of valuable information on quail harvest and hunter
success," he explained.
The straightforward survey is only for hunts on wild quail – not hunts
on pen-reared birds (usually a paid hunt on a shooting resort). Each
individual hunter is asked to fill out the survey. Each member of a
party can fill out a form for the same hunt as long as they use their
own information on how many birds they harvested, Fowler said. "It is
important to record all hunts, even those with no flushes or kills, so
that I can get accurate calculations for the average hunt," he
explained. The survey sheet is available on the AGFC website at:
http://www.agfc.com/hunting/quail.html
or from any AGFC regional office.
The surveys must be returned to Fowler by Feb. 28, 2007. |