Aspects of northern bobwhite ecology on south Florida US pastureland
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Aspects of northern bobwhite ecology on south Florida US pastureland J. A. Martin & W. E. Palmer & J. P. Carroll
Received: 3 March 2012 / Revised: 26 July 2012 / Accepted: 18 September 2012 / Published online: 9 October 2012 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Abstract During 2004 and 2005, we monitored breeding season survival, home range, habitat use, density, and reproduction of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in the peninsular region of Florida, USA. We radio-tagged 81 birds across a 20-km2 cattle ranch consisting predominately of rotationally grazed pastureland. Birds were radio-tracked three to five times per week until mortality or the transition to nonbreeding season. We found no difference in home range size among the sexes, ages, or their interaction. Mean home range size pooled for years, sexes, and age class was 56.28 ha (±7.87 SE). Home ranges of bobwhites were not distributed among habitats randomly (second order: Λ00.10; 7, 35 df; P00.002). In addition, bobwhites did not use the habitats within their home range at random (third order: Λ00.14, 5, 35 df; P00.02). Estimated seasonal survival was 0.28 (±0.12 SE) and was best explained by the time-dependent model. Reproductive metrics indicated adequate reproduction and values consistent with the bobwhite literature. Bobwhite density (birds per hectare) in 2004 was 0.52 (±0.54 95 % confidence interval [CI]) and 0.75 (±0.51 95 % CI) for 2005. These results suggest that pastureland landscapes managed with rotational grazing can support Communicated by P. Acevedo J. A. Martin (*) Forest and Wildlife Research Center, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box 9690, Mississippi, MS 39762, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. E. Palmer Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, 13093 Henry Beadel Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32312, USA J. P. Carroll Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Georgia, GA 30602, USA
bobwhite populations, albeit at low densities. More conservation attention should be directed towards improving these systems for bobwhite restoration. Keywords Colinus virginianus . Florida . Game birds . Grazing . Northern bobwhite . Pastureland
Introduction Historically, northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) were abundant residents of fire-maintained prairie habitats in peninsular Florida USA (Frye 1954). However, over the past 40 years, bobwhite populations have declined at an annual rate of 4.3 % (Hines 2007), likely due to the degradation of native prairie habitats resulting from incompatible fire management and grazing practices and the conversion of native prairie habitats to pastureland dominated by exotic forages, principally bahia grass (Paspalum notatum) and Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) (Dimmick et al. 2002; Hines 2007). Exotic pasturelands now occupy 1.2 million ha of what was once suitable bobwhite habitat in peninsular Florida. Bobwhite habitat use and demographic parameters are well documented in
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