What is the principal mission of Arizona Quail Alliance?

To advocate for better management of the Mearns quail by the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGFD) in order to improve the sport of Mearns quail hunting. We believe that the Mearns quail is a " special bird, in a special environment, which merits special consideration".

What is the mission statement of the Arizona Game & Fish Department?

"To conserve, enhance, and restore Arizona's diverse wildlife resources and habitats through aggressive protection and management programs, and to provide wildlife resources and safe watercraft and off-highway vehicle recreation for the enjoyment, appreciation, and use by present and future generations".

Why was Arizona Quail Alliance formed in the first place?

Arizona Quail Alliance was formed after the 2000 hunting season for the reasons covered in the following letter: "The 2000 Season in Review"

What is the first thing that Arizona Quail Alliance wants to accomplish and why?

The reduction of the bag limit for Mearns quail in Arizona. There are two problems caused by too-high a bag limit: too many birds are killed in one season and is hurting the chances of the Mearns' ability to reach otherwise natural numbers the following one. Secondly, the population of Mearns quail gets reduced at too fast a rate within a season. No wonder that now 90% of the hundreds of Mearns quail hunters that have filled out Arizona Quail Alliance field questionnaires this past season, want the bag limit reduced. Most want a bag limit between five (5) and eight (8) birds. In the beginning of this past season, only four (4) hunters were members of Arizona Quail Alliance, By the end of this past season 28% of the hunters that answered the Arizona Quail Alliance questionnaires became members of our organization.

The second initiative we will like to champion is a 3-year study using strictly "Radio Telemetry". This is an exciting technology now available for the management of even such a small species as the Mearns quail. A study only conducted with this technology will finally answer the many questions that remain unanswered today. For an outstanding reference book on this subject please obtain a copy of Fred S. Guthery's new book "The Technology of Bobwhite Management: The Theory behind the Practice" (March 2002). It is available via Amazon or Barnes & Nobles (www.bn.com). This book examines the past, present and problematic future of the Bobwhite quail. The Mearns quail is in most respects very similar to the Bobwhite quail, in fact it is by far more vulnerable to hunting pressure.

Is Arizona Quail Alliance interested in any other agenda to achieve its purpose?

No. We are NOT trying to limit the number of hunters, limit hunting access, eliminate the guiding for upland gamebirds in Arizona, or are opposed to out-of-state hunters. On the contrary. Nor change the means or methodology of hunting. Nor promote a permit system or a special "Mearns Quail Stamp".

We feel that just lowering the bag limit for Mearns quail to a level that will conserve and protect the species and the quality of Mearns hunting for all hunters, throughout the entire season, will make it unnecessary to promote any other agendas.

So what is the present role of Arizona Quail Alliance?

For the present, Arizona Quail Alliance can serve as the means for your direct participation to the management of this bird. We want to know how you stand on the present management of the Mearns quail by going directly to you the hunter through this web site and the hunting questionnaires you saw in many locations this year throughout the Mearns quail country of southern Arizona. Our double-mail-box stands (see photo on left) are now in most popular hunting locations and some are to be found alongside AGFD 'wing boxes' or in commercial businesses in Patagonia, Sonoita or in the Arivacas. Your input, will be what will be taken directly to the Game and Fish Commission meeting coming up each April.

New this season (2002) will be greater information on the biology of Mearns quail and what can you do to insure the best season Mother Nature allows us to have.


What could be the future role of Arizona Quail Alliance once the bag limit is reduced?

1. Hunter Education. The Mearns quail needs to be viewed as a sporting bird, not an alternative shooting target. We will start promoting a set of 'hunter suggestions' for Mearns quail hunters that will give hunters some guidelines, albeit strictly on a volunteer basis, that will help the bird be back every year in dependable numbers. It may also help solidify today's Mearns quail hunters, who are composed of longtime vs. new hunters, from out of state vs. from Arizona, and local hunters vs. from other cities in Arizona. In other words, the Mearns quail has to develop its own "Mearns quail culture", as the one that now exists for the Bobwhite quail. An example of the Bobwhite culture is that not only is it considered bad form, but outright sacrilegious to ever shoot a covey of Bobwhites below six (6) birds. The Mearns quail hunters need to develop this sense of contentiousness among its fraternity, and above all, Mearns quail hunters need to appreciate, for starters, just how vulnerable this bird is to extreme hunting pressure.

2. Start a "Radio Telemetry Program" initiative, in cooperation with the AGFD and other hunting and conservation groups. It has never been done for the Mearns quail. Its benefits include that it will enlighten us on the true survivability of the Mearns quail and its movement during a hunting season. Also on their ability to repopulate an area dangerously shot out after the hunting season. Thirdly, their success in raising a successful clutch during the most important time of the year for this bird - July and August.

3. Improvement of Mearns quail habitat. Well beyond just curtailing the degree of cattle grazing. Can we further improve the quality of the habitat by the reintroducing of certain native grasses which the Mearns quail depends on and where there in original abundance? Can we transplant Mearns quail to new areas where they originally were found? Can we bring back the water-guzzler program, that will help to at least preserve as many adult pair as possible during drought years, and when we come out of a dry cycle, the population can bounce back that much quicker?

There are a number of improvements waiting. The only thing required is imagination and effort. And anything can be accomplished with the right amount of effort. After all, the first Mearns quail identified (1935) was found in Prescott, AZ. Scaled quail were transplanted to the San Carlos reservation long ago.


What is the difference between the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Arizona Game & Fish Commission and what are their functions?

Bag limits are set by the Game and Fish Commission that conducts public hearings once a year (April) to allow public input. Generally, the Arizona Game & Fish Department gives their recommendations based on their biological understanding and barring some decisive counterpoint by the public, the Commission follows the AGFD recommendations.

The Game and Fish Commission will consider a "social" request from the public, for example a lower bag limit, even if supposedly divorced from 'biological fact', if enough numbers of hunters support it. However, we feel we asked for a lower bag limit, not for social reasons, but for biological reasons. The bird was indeed overharvested during the 2000 season. Despite nature's cooperation during the summer of 2001, the bird did not rebound as AGFD predicted. The 2001 season was about 50Z% of the previous one, and this coming season (2002) will show another decline from last year. Our request for a lower bag limit was based on the biological reality - that the population of the bird is now going backwards as a direct result of too much hunting pressure during the hunting seasons of 2000 and again in 2001, both had a fifteen (15) bird bag limit, which now has been rolled back to ten (10) birds for 2002.

The second argument can indeed be considered 'social'. The population of Mearns is being reduced at too-fast-a-rate and that affects the ability of the AGFD to sell licenses or local economies to depend on visiting hunters to show up in the first place. It is causing many that do show up after the first 2-3 weeks in the season to leave disappointed. In the long run, a too-high a bag limit lacks common and social sense.



The Sport of Mearns Quail Hunting:

What is the essence of the sport of Mearns quail hunting?

Mearns quail hunting is exemplified by watching your dog cover beautiful grass-covered canyons and hills and actually seeing when he snaps on point. For the sporting dog enthusiast, this bird has become very dear. Out-of-state hunters prize him especially in those years when the Bobwhite populations are low in other states, which has been the case now for a number of years. There is no better hunting scenario anywhere else in the country or a more cooperative bird for the sporting dog enthusiast than the elegant Mearns quail.

What do you mean by the 'quality of the hunt'?

Most Mearns quail hunters today would define quality as: "To see a lot of birds and kill a few, not to kill the few they see". Quality also means to have a reasonable number of birds available throughout the length of the season. We are observing striking decreases in covey size much too quickly in the season. This happened during the 2000 season, despite the fact we started with the best population of Mearns quail in nearly twenty (20) years. In that season, the bird population plummeted by January 10th, despite the fact the season lasted until the middle of February, five weeks later. This past season (2001), the drop off was more rapid and dramatic and took place by December 10th, a mere three (3) weeks into the 12-week season.



What is the point of having a long season if the bird population gets reduced at such a quick rate?

Excellent question! That is what we have been asking of the AGFD and the Commission. After all this is nothing new. Past studies have suggested how and why 70% of Mearns quail can be shot out the very first two weeks of the season - especially if the bag limit is too high from the outset. This is what happens when the outdated "Compensatory Theory" (covered below) is blindly applied to every species without exception.


Management:

What is the present management of Mearns quail in Arizona?

There is no specific management of the Mearns quail in Arizona, with the exception of the prescribed season which differs from that of desert quail (Gambel and Scaled). In all other respects, he is treated similarly as Gambels and Scaled quail in Arizona.

Why should the Mearns quail have a different management policy than Gambels or Scaled quail?

The Mearns quail is totally a different bird in not only distribution, being an 'island population', but in nature and habits. A species with a distribution that constitutes an 'island population' is oftentimes not able to recover from predation (which includes man) like those species that have a widespread distribution. Note the localized distribution of the Mearns quail on the map on the left.

The Mearns quail main defense is to freeze and hold when he encounters danger, like the Bobwhite quail. He is not a strong flier and will go only a short distance, unlike a Bobwhite quail who tends to disappear after the first covey rise. This has made him naturally precious to the "sporting dog enthusiast" and very vulnerable to the hunter interested in killing him in maximum high bag limit numbers - the "high bag limit hunter".

Conversely, a Gambel's or Scaled quail prefers to run when man approaches. He aggregates in large numbers, posts guards and when he does fly, he flies great distances, well away from danger. The survival skills of the desert quail are very different from that of Mearns. Why they all have the same management policy by the AGFD is beyond most hunter's comprehension who actually hunt both types of quail species.

What is the Compensatory Theory?

This theory is deeply imbedded in the wildlife management culture. However, it is no longer adhered by many state game & fish departments, and it has been thoroughly discredited in the past 20 years. Yet it persists. The proof lies in the fact that every state uses a number of ways to limit the impact of hunting (see below). This theory, is used to explain that the harvest by hunters on bird population will not adversely effect the bird population since those birds would die anyway (doomed surplus) by the time the breeding season begins. Hunters are only taking what natural mortality will eliminate anyway. Meaning, hunter impact is 'compensatory' (has no effect) vs. 'additive' (having an impact).

In actuality, all hunting has an 'additive' effect on all species, but to what degree is the issue. If it is so light as to be negligible than it could be concluded as harmless. When hunting pressure exceeds a certain point, which tends to happen as the hunting season progresses, than hunting pressure can be quite dangerous. When that hunting pressure starts eliminating the birds that will make the best candidates for a species 'brood stock' the following breeding season, is when a species will be prevented from coming back to otherwise natural numbers.

What is the "Self Regulating Concept"?

As a bird population disappears, the 'Self-Regulating' concept is oftentimes relied on by game and fish departments. This theory states that as the population of birds declines, hunters will turn to other species, and hunting pressure will subside. Thus hunting pressure is 'self regulating'. Those who want to hunt Mearns quail however, are expected to move their act to another quail species or accept a low and certainly hard-to-find bird population. The underlying message of this theory, which some would consider it asinine, appears to be, "Sorry, most of the birds have been already removed for the season, but do not worry, their long-term survival is ensured because surely enough have survived. They will be back in maximum numbers next season (Compensatory Theory). Go and hunt something else. See you next season". It is the low standards of this concept that should be unacceptable to hunters wanting to hunt Mearns quail every season in enough appreciable numbers to be fun.

How do state game and fish departments limit hunting impact?

In a number of ways, but the fact that they do in the first place, regardless of methodology, tells you they know hunting has an impact on every species. The fact is that all departments have a season for a species, have limits in the first place, have a time frame when you can hunt it and even limit the means and methodology how you can hunt. The four ways that hunters are regulated are:

A. Length of the season.
B. Time of the season.
C. Bag Limits.
D. Means & Methodology.


Click here to join the Arizona Quail Alliance.