Further Studies of Bob-White Mobility in Central Missouri

Abstract

Because of differing results of mobility studies conducted at widely separated points in the bob-white's (Colinus virginianus) range, and because of lack of specific information on this subject under Missouri conditions, a series of investigations on mobility of wild bobwhites was initiated by the Missouri Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. First results of this study were reported by Murphy and Baskett (1952). (Bobwhite mobility in central Missouri, Jour. Wildl. Mgt. 16: 498-510, 1952). The investigation reported here, the second of the series, was designed to supplement the first. The studies were made on and in the vicinity of the Ashland Wildlife Research Area in Boone County, central Missouri. This area comprises 2,240 acres of abandoned farm land and second growth oak-hickory woodland; approximately one-third of the acreage consists of abandoned fields along ridges, and other openings which are frequented by quail and are widely distributed through the area. Quail densities on the entire Ashland Area averaged about one bird per nine acres in late winter. The open north-central portion carried somewhat higher densities, as did neighboring farmland to the north and west, where most off-area trapping was conducted. The land south and east of the Ashland Area is mostly wooded, and supported fewer quail. Data were secured by trapping and banding wild bob-whites. Materials used in the two studies were similar: cock-and-hen traps baited with grain in fall and winter, and furnished with decoy females in spring and summer. Quail were banded with numbered aluminum bands, but colored plastic leg bands and neck markers were used as supplementary marking systems. Procedures were also similar, but in the present study, the Ashland Area was trapped somewhat less intensively, and the surroundings more intensively, than in the previous investigation. The studies had in common an inadequate measure of egress. For detailed description of the area, of materials and procedures, and for a review of pertinent literature, the reader is referred to the paper by Murphy and Baskett (op. cit.). 'Contribution from the Missouri Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife Management Institute, Missouri Conservation Commission, Edward K. Love Foundation, and University of Missouri cooperating. The writer is indebted to T. S. Baskett who directed the research, and to D. A. Murphy, W. H. Elder, T. G. Scott, and P. C. Smith for advice and assistance.