HUNTERS FIND FEWER PHEASANT, QUAIL IN MISSOURI THIS YEAR

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri pheasant and quail hunters can look forward to a challenge this hunting season. Surveys conducted during the first half of August indicate the populations of both bird species have declined from last year. That has wildlife biologists saying that prospects are only fair for the 1996-97 quail and pheasant season which opened Friday and runs through Jan. 15.

Each year, conservation agents conduct roadside surveys of quail numbers along 30-mile routes in every county except Jackson and St. Louis. This year's surveys found quail numbers statewide their lowest since the survey began in 1983. The average brood count of 0.3 broods per route was 46 percent below last year's. The average number of quail per route was 4.63, 44 percent below the 1995 figure.

Tom Dailey, wildlife research biologist with Missouri Department of Conservation, says poor spring nesting conditions account for the decrease in quail. "The wet and cold weather we had in May came at a critical nesting period. There are two scenarios that likely occurred. The heavy rains washed eggs out of nests or the chicks were unable to survive those conditions. Young chicks have difficulty keeping warm, they could become hypothermic under those conditions and some of them probably died."

Dailey says some hunters think that a shortened hunting season or reduced bag limits might be in order to help rebuild quail numbers. They reason that a lower quail harvest would translate into more breeders in the spring. Hunters call this stockpiling. But recent research at Blind Pony Conservation Area provides evidence that overly restrictive regulations do not produce convincing benefits.

The study compared the progress of quail in a heavily hunted zone with that of quail in an area with much lighter hunting pressure. In the heavily hunted zone, hunters shot 66 to 83 percent of the quail each year during the three-year study. In the area with light hunting pressure, they took only about 35 percent of the total quail population each fall.

Did stockpiling mean significantly more quail in the spring? No, says Dailey. From the end of the hunting season until April, quail in the stockpiled zone died at a rate 1.5 to 3 times greater than quail in the heavily hunted zone.

"This finding confirmed the long-held belief that if hunters don't get the birds, something else will," said Dailey. "This has always been the case, and in response, bobwhite quail have evolved a very high capacity for replenishing their numbers during the nesting season. With a couple of years of mild weather, bobwhites will bounce back."

Fortunately for hunters, quail are tenacious birds that don't give up in their efforts to raise their broods. Dailey says mild weather conditions this past summer make it likely that hunters will see a fair number of birds from clutches hatched in the mid to late summer months. Those young birds will be a challenge to hunters because they tend to run more than older birds or fly up into trees rather than fly away.

The best hunting locations for quail will be found in western Missouri where counts were highest in the state at 15 per route. The quail populations in the state's north central, northwest, southwest and bootheel regions are described as moderate, 4-5 quail per route. The lowest counts of less than 3 quail were found in central, east, northeast and south-central Missouri.

Pheasant numbers also declined. The 1996 roadside survey showed 3.7 ringed-neck pheasants per route, a 9-percent decrease in the number seen last year. Pheasant production in 1996, determined by the number of chicks and broods observed along designated 30-mile routes in counties across the state, decreased 2 percent compared to 1995.

MDC Wildlife Research Biologist John Schulz says pheasants were negatively affected by the cold wet weather conditions during their spring nesting. The 1996 Rural Mail Carrier Survey conducted in mid-April reported 339 pheasants, or .78 birds per 100 miles. Each year MDC cooperates with more than 500 mail carriers to monitor spring pheasant populations in northern and southeastern Missouri. Schulz says the more recent roadside survey shows promise for a fair 1996-97 harvest. "During 1988-94 there has been a strong relationship between the roadside survey and fall pheasant harvest," he says. "With this in mind, the expected 1996 pheasant harvest should be similar to 1995 or slightly lower."

The hunting conditions will be best in northwest and north central Missouri according to Schulz. Northwest Missouri had the highest count with 5.6 pheasant per 30-mile route. The other survey results include 4.2 birds per route in the north-central Missouri , 3.0 in the northeast and 0.4 in the Bootheel.

MDC continues to trap wild pheasants and release them in new areas. Four new sites in Clinton County received 542 wild-trapped pheasants this spring. This area is not open to hunting yet.

Missouri's pheasant and gray partridge season opened Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 15 in the north zone. Pheasant hunting season in the Bootheel is Dec. 1 through 12. Zone boundaries and hunting season dates for each zone are listed in the 1996 Summary of Missouri Hunting & Trapping Regulations, which is available wherever hunting permits are sold.