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Health Issues & Diseases
Health Issues & Diseases
Parasites
Parasites
"In the summer of 2010, the Rolling Plains of West Texas expected a bumper crop of quail. By October, they nearly had vanished.
Now, as part of the largest quail disease study ever undertaken in the U.S., scientists at The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University believe they have found a major culprit.
Researchers in the Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory necropsied hundreds of birds throughout a 19-million-acre area of land and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled.
The study, part of multi-million-dollar Operation Idiopathic Decline and funded by the private Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, is titled “Evidence of an Oxispirura petrowi Epizootic in Northern Bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) Texas, USA.” It was published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases and provides evidence of how the parasitic outbreak began.
“When we first got into this research project and started peeling back the layers of this onion, we asked if it’s possible for a parasite to move that quickly through a population on a large area,” said Ron Kendall, professor of environmental toxicology at Texas Tech and lead investigator. “And we answered the question. It’s ‘yes.’”"
"Other researchers include a key collaborator, Alan Fedynich, an associate professor and research scientist at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, a post-doctoral research associate and three doctoral students in the Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory.
Rick Snipes, president of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, said he was impressed with the researchers’ findings.
“As a result of the massive die-off in 2010, our board of directors made a decision to fund the first disease and parasite study done in the United States in more than 80 years,” Snipes said. “To date, we have invested $4.3 million in Operation Idiopathic Decline, which includes Dr. Kendall’s work. We are thrilled beyond imagination at the results that he and his research team have discovered, and we plan on supporting it until its completion.”
Throughout the Rolling plains, Kendall and others found a significant infection rate with the birds they trapped. Kendall said the eyeworm can range in size from about an eighth of an inch to the diameter of a penny. Once inside the birds, they move freely from eye to eye through the sinus cavity, where they suck the blood of the birds, mate and release eggs.
...Kendall describes how these parasitic nematodes ingest blood from the quail and feed predominantly in ducts behind the eye, where they can cause severe inflammation and edema from their feeding activities.
“We did a size comparison,” Kendall said “If these parasites were in a human and you compared the size of the quail eye to the human eye, it would be like having a worm about the size of a toothpick behind your eye. Now, imagine having up to 40 or 50 of them in there, and we have seen this in the wild. That could certainly impair your ability to see and cause serious inflammation. And once they’re in there, what we are figuring out is they’re not leaving the eye.
They are there to stay. There’s no way for the quail to get these parasites out once they invade the eye.”
Kendall said spring rains in 2010 brought the prairies to life with increased habitat and insect numbers for the quail to eat and, for a time, quail numbers swelled. The Rolling Plains of West Texas are a major stronghold for wild bobwhite quail hunting in the United States, and many communities depend on the economic boost quail hunting brings.
“It was very green and lush, and we had a lot of quail,” he said. “Then, we didn’t have any quail when we approached October 1. We do not believe it had anything to do with habitat. Habitat in 2010 was the best we had seen in many years. It had to be something else. We think infection with these eyeworms can negatively impact vision of quail. These birds need to be 100 percent performance ready to get away from a Cooper’s hawk. If you are a quail in the wild and if you have vision impairment it could negatively impact your ability to get away from a predator.”
Operation Idiopathic Decline began in 2011. The three-year project aimed to discover what might have caused the massive die-off on the Rolling Plains.
“In July of 2010, we had two major rain events of more than five inches each,” he said. “That created a population explosion of insects, particularly crickets, which carry the eyeworm in a larval state. I’m convinced, based on our data, that the conditions may have been right to precipitate a massive insect population explosion, which in turn, created a quail population boom. But there was a catch.”
Kendall believes that by eating crickets infected with eyeworms, quail were actually swallowing a poisoned pill. Eggs from eyeworms in quail would be left behind in the birds’ feces, which in turn would be eaten by more crickets.
“There’s evidence of eyeworms all over the Rolling Plains now,” he said. “We need a cure; we need a strategy to cure it. So we’re in the process of a major research and development effort to find a remedy. There’s been evidence for some time that eyeworms were in the Rolling Plains, but we didn’t know how to assess their potential impact. Maybe this might provide more interpretation of why we have such large cyclic crashes of quail. We don’t know yet. One thing we do know is that there have been increased reports of quail flying into objects, such as barns and houses. This might answer why.”" - Texas Monthly: Blood-Sucking Eyeworm Caused Drastic Quail Decline
Types of Quail
Types of Quail
Bobwhite
Bobwhite
"Bobwhites get their name from a distinctive whistling call, “poor Bob-WHITE,” produced by roosters during the breeding season. Their color pattern is primarily black, brown, and white. Bobwhites are social, and remain with a covey of six to 25 other birds for the duration of their lives. They prefer to stay on the ground, but may fly short distances if disturbed. Their nesting season is heavily affected by weather. “If it rains, you’ll have quail; if it don’t, you won’t.”
The Northern Bobwhite is seed-eating, and prefers seeds found on forbs and grasses. They eat green vegetation, seeds and fruit from shrubs, and insects. The average lifespan of a bobwhite is six months, and they may survive up to five years under ideal conditions in the wild.
However, there has been an alarming decline of quail in Texas. Since 1980, bobwhite populations have declined at a rate of about 5.6 percent each year. Habitat loss is one of the top concerns. Pasture conversion, poor grazing management, and predation by small mammals and avian predators are other contributing factors. Weather variables and disease directly affect the survivability of quail as well. Small, isolated quail populations are unable to withstand long-term threats." - LLELA: Bobwhite Quail Restoration
North America
North America
All About Birds: Bird Guide "ID North American help and life history info for 600+ species"
Programs
Programs
North America
North America
USA
USA
Texas
Quail Covey Run: Quail Releases "One of the services Quail Covey Run offers are bobwhite quail releases for those who are looking to repopulate their land. Preparing and repopulating your property takes time and a level of dedication. Before deciding to book a release, we ask that you read through the four sections below. Think of each section as a preparation guide or "checklist". If your property seems to fit each section's description, a release may be beneficial and produce the desired results."
Organizations
Organizations
North America
North America
USA
USA
Illinois
Bird Conservation Network "We are a coalition of over 20 conservation groups, including bird clubs, ornithological societies, and conservation organizations sharing an interest in the preservation of our local birds and the habitats they need to survive."
Texas
LLELA "has been instrumental in conservation efforts and habitat restoration efforts for bobwhite quail and other obligate native grassland species. The native grasses and forbs, as well as a mosaic of wooded areas provide cover and preferred habitat for bobwhites. There has been an annual release of color-banded adult birds since 2012."
Suggested Reading
Suggested Reading
North America
North America
USA
USA
Texas
Seed Source: Texas Bobwhite "is a field guide to the seeds commonly eaten by northern bobwhites, as well as a handbook for conserving and improving northern bobwhite habitat. It provides identifying characteristics for the seeds of 91 species of grasses, forbs, woody plants, and succulents. Each seed description includes a close-up and a scale photo of the seed and the plant that produces it, along with a range map. Using this information, hunters can readily identify concentrations of plants that are most likely to attract quail. Landowners and rangeland managers will greatly benefit from the book's state-of-the-art guidance for habitat management and restoration, including improving habitat dominated by invasive and nonnative grasses."
The Upland Game Bird Management Handbook for Texas Landowners (PDF) "This handbook is a template for landowners, land managers and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff to use to implement the Texas Quail Conservation Initiative (TQCI), the Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation Initiative and other landscape-level, habitat-driven game bird conservation efforts.
This handbook provides information regarding the current status and distribution of game birds in Texas and describes the challenges facing game bird conservationists today.
This handbook also outlines game bird habitat incentives available to landowners and land managers and describes how these incentives tie into the Joint Venture approach to integrated bird management.
The appendices of the handbook are designed to help land managers (1) understand game bird population and habitat management, (2) learn how to estimate game bird numbers, and (3) find sources of additional information about game birds."
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