uail Unlimited has spent a great deal of time raising money to fund quail research in South Texas. Support from numerous chapters (South Texas, Houston, East Texas, Alamo and Austin) and the State Council, has been crucial for initiating and continuing long-term research on various aspects of quail life, history and management in South Texas. These Texas Quail Unlimited Chapters and the State Council have contributed over $300,000 to support quail research in South Texas since 1998 and an additional $200,000 for management. Quail Unlimited has been instrumental in supporting several major quail research projects in South Texas. Thus, our purpose here is to provide a brief synopsis of these projects.

We also provide a summary of the support, in dollars and in-kind contributions, provided by Quail Unlimited for South Texas quail research. We conclude with some comments about cooperative strategies that are essential for funding wildlife research in today's difficult economic climate.

Demography and Habitat Use: The South Texas Quail Research Project Understanding the population dynamics of bobwhites in South Texas is a long-term endeavor. South Texas exhibits an extremely variable climate, one that can go from extreme drought and high heat to extreme wetness and cooler days within months. In such an environment, short-term studies are only capable of providing brief glimpses in time of natural processes, thereby making interpretation difficult. Long-term studies deal scientists a much better hand.

In August 1998, the South Texas Chapter of Quail Unlimited dealt us such a hand. The chapter had been interested in initiating a long-term radiotelemetry study on bobwhites in South Texas for some time and felt the timing was right. Their initial contribution of $50,000 provided the necessary seed money to embark on a long-term ecological project on bobwhites, the South Texas Quail Research Project. Soon other chapters joined the effort, and annual contributions followed from the founding chapter (South Texas Chapter [$15,000], the Texas State Council [$7,500], the Greater Houston Chapter [$5,000], the East Texas Chapter [$5,000] and the Alamo Chapter [$2,000]).

These annual contributions add up! They have been essential for keeping people on the ground, collecting data. In addition, the Texas State Council donated the use of two all-terrain vehicles, which facilitated data collection. The Texas State Council also supports the dissemination of our research findings by underwriting the printing costs of our quail newsletter, The Bobwhite Post. Additional support for student scholarships, the Quail V symposium and newsletters alone has totaled over $30,000. The South Texas Quail Research Project is designed to help us understand the dynamics of bobwhite populations in a highly variable environment while considering all the basic components of a bobwhite ecosystem (i.e., bobwhite populations, predators, habitat and weather). This past fall (2004) marked our five-year anniversary of the project. We presented some of our notable findings since the inception of the project.

Bobwhite populations in our study area generally exhibit annual survival rates (15-25%) indicative of a stable population. Nest success is also greater (60%) than what is commonly reported for bobwhites across their range (30%). Late summer hurricanes can negatively impact survival of young broods (less than two weeks), but probably have minimal impact on overall bobwhite populations because production occurs primarily during early summer, and therefore, chicks are of age to withstand storms.

Drought shortens the length of the nesting season to about two months and results in fewer hens nesting (50%). Annual survival is also about one third lower during dry conditions. Deciphering how and why these variables are affected by drought potentially hold the answer to the boom and bust mystery.

General raptor abundance is not a strong indicator of actual bobwhite mortality. It is erroneous to infer that a high abundance of raptors results in a high mortality of bobwhites.

Bobwhites that survive the fall migration of raptors (September through February) are characterized by home ranges that contain more woody cover (20%) than bobwhites that are depredated during this time period (10%). Thus, woody cover seems to be a key habitat element that increases bobwhite survival.

Fall broods use dense shrubs as roosting sites during the first few weeks of age, but then progressively use them less as they mature. Summer broods, however, roost in open grasslands upon hatching. The insulating effects afforded by shrubs probably explain why young broods use shrubs as roosting sites during the cooler fall season.

Understanding Nest Predation The recent availability of infrared video recording technology now allows quail researchers and managers to obtain a complete picture of the predator context during the nesting season. Although the use of radiotelemetry was a considerable improvement over direct observation, many nest predation events were missed or incorrectly interpreted. Infrared cameras that record nesting activities "24/7," now provide a complete documentation of virtually all nest predators in a given area.

While these cameras are great, they are also expensive, about $5,000 to $6,000 each. Thus, it takes a considerable fund-raising effort to acquire enough camera units to sample a given area. The South Texas Chapter of Quail Unlimited generously donated funds to purchase three camera units for this initiative.

Additionally, the Texas State Council of Quail Unlimited has leased a pickup truck for us to use on this project. Over the past three years, these, and cameras from other donors, have been used to videotape over 100 quail nests as part of the South Texas Quail Project. We have learned that in South Texas, a suite of mammalian predators exert most of the predation pressure on nesting quail. There is no single culprit that takes the majority of nests. This is in marked contrast to the Southeastern US, where gray rat snakes are a major bobwhite predator. In contrast, we have documented only one snake predation event on a nesting quail. During the 2005 nesting season, we expanded our nest videography efforts to include the project at the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area that is evaluating the role of exotic grasses on quail nesting success. The cameras will allow us to assess whether nest predation differs between areas with native grasses compared to those with exotic grasses. More details of the exotic grass nesting project is provided below.

Satellite Bird Dogs: The Hunter-Covey Interface In the January-February 2004 issue of Quail Unlimited, we provided an overview of the research on the Hunter-Covey Interface (HCI) conducted by Jason Hardin for his Master's thesis project. Quail Unlimited provided the pickup truck that Jason needed to conduct his field work during the winter. This was the same truck used during the summer for the nest predator camera project. The data Jason collected using "Satellite Bird Dogs" (actually GPS units on pointing dogs) showed that the HCI theory developed by Dr. Fred Guthery may be useful for managing hunting pressure.

Influence of Exotic Grasses on Nesting and Productivity Numerous species of grasses from Africa and Asia have been brought to South Texas to "improve" quantity and quality of forage for cattle. Some of these species end up becoming invasive and outcompete the native species of grasses that have evolved in this part of the world. Typically, plant communities dominated by exotic grasses are less diverse and have fewer forbs and insects compared to areas with native species. Such places also seem to tend to support fewer quail, which concerns us.

The impacts of exotic grass species on quail nesting and productivity are virtually unknown. Thus, we have initiated a project on the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area, near Cotulla, Texas, to evaluate the impact of two species of exotic grass (buffelgrass and Lehmann's love grass) on quail nesting.

As part of this study, we will be using infrared video cameras and recording units to document nesting patterns and the predators that prey on quail nests in areas with native and exotic grasses. This study will be directly comparable to the ongoing South Texas Quail Project on the Encino Division of King Ranch, which is predominantly native vegetation.

Assessment of Counting Techniques Assessing the number of individuals in a wildlife population has been a challenge since the beginning of wildlife management. Reliable estimates of density are necessary for the management and conservation of wildlife. Indices are one method that has been used extensively to estimate wildlife abundance. Some examples of indices used for bobwhites include roadside counts, helicopter surveys and whistling cock counts. Indices generally involve a raw count of animals seen or heard and, thus, provide us only with general population trends and actual population numbers (i.e., density [number/area]). Naturally, a density estimate provides the manager with a better perspective of the population status than a mere trend.

Density estimates for bobwhites have been obtained in the past using two methods: morning covey-call counts and line transects. Both have their limitations. Morning covey counts involve counting the number of coveys heard calling at dawn as they come off the roost. At high densities, determining how many coveys are calling can be difficult because of the intensity of calling. Line transects'd1as applied to quail'd1involve walking straight transects and recording the perpendicular distance of the covey to the transect, as well as the number of birds in the covey. These data are then used in a series of mathematical calculations from which an estimate of density is obtained. The main drawback associated with using distance sampling is that considerable walking is involved. Generally, 60 to 80 observations (covey flushes) are required to provide a reliable quail population density estimate, although fewer sometimes do the trick. Thus, walking transects would not be practical on large ranches. These limitations may be addressed by flying the transects rather than walking them. During the late 1980s, Dr. Fred Guthery and colleagues evaluated the use of helicopter transects for estimating bobwhite density and concluded the approach held promise.

Given this background, we developed a study during the fall of 2004 designed to compare walking transects, helicopter transects and morning covey-call counts as methods for estimating bobwhite density. We are collaborating with the South Texas Quail Research Project on this endeavor in order to make the most efficient use of our available resources. This study represents a two-year effort; therefore, we presently have only preliminary findings from our first field season.

Walking line transects yielded a bobwhite density of about one bird/acre. Helicopter transects (0.8 bird/acre) corresponded reasonably well with walking transects, although the estimates were slightly lower. However, morning covey-call counts tended to overestimate the density (1.5 birds/acre). We still have a second field season to obtain data for this project, so we cannot provide a conclusion to our research question at the moment.

Cooperative support from Texas Quail Unlimited chapters and the State Council are essential to our quail research, along with numerous other people, organizations and agencies. Support from Quail Unlimited has attracted additional funds from agencies such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and numerous charitable foundations and private donors. A great deal of this work has taken place on the Encino Division of King Ranch, although we are also branching out to work on the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area, a location that is typically hotter and drier than Encino. The people who run King Ranch have contributed access to land that serves as an outstanding field laboratory. Without access to such a field laboratory, much of the research we described here would not be possible. Additionally, San Tomas Hunting Camp has graciously provided lodging and meals for technicians and graduate students while they work in the field collecting data.

The bottom line is that when a lot of people and organizations chip in, a lot can be accomplished. This is clearly the case with respect to how quail research is supported in South Texas. South Texas is just part of the picture when it comes to Quail Unlimited support. Overall, the State Council and Texas chapters have donated over $500,000 for quail research and management in Texas since 1998. These funds have been a magnet that has attracted additional cooperative support and funding to do good things for quail in Texas. Leonard Brennan and Fidel Hernandez are Professor and Associate Professor, respectively, in the Richard M. Kleberg, Jr. Center for Quail Research at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Kingsville. Fred Bryant is the Director of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.