The northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) population decline has prompted several studies over the past decade investigating bobwhite population genetics and overall connectivity. The zeitgeist of current quail conservation is that bobwhite populations have become increasingly fragmented, leading to their decline as a result of reduced fitness associated with effects from small population size. A few studies exploring population-level patterns of genetic connectivity at the local scale have identified some areas possessing limited gene flow likely due to recent anthropogenic landscape changes. Interestingly, however, multiple studies using genetic methods have also suggested that the species has experienced a recent range-wide expansion with few barriers to dispersal, suggesting a large panmictic population. Although the above are both supported by empirical data, we highlight another possibility that has been proposed yet rarely investigated. Millions of wild bobwhites have been transported among populations, and millions more captive-reared bobwhites have been and continue to be released across the species' range. Given the massive scale at which bobwhites have been artificially dispersed, more research is needed to investigate the effects of introgression of nonlocal birds on our ability to understand recent changes in bobwhite population fragmentation, size, and diversity. Such information has important management implications to long-term bobwhite population sustainability. By quantifying the level of human-mediated bobwhite dispersal events, our review cautions against assigning evolutionary or conservation significance to patterns of genetic connectivity among bobwhite populations until a more systematic effort is made to verify that such activities have not affected our ability to identify natural gene-flow patterns at both local and broadscale distributions. Ó 2017 The Wildlife Society.

Northern bobwhite populations are dwindling across their range. Accordingly, in areas with bobwhite habitat restoration and no nearby populations, effective population restoration techniques are needed. Here, we evaluated three bobwhite restoration release strategies: (1) release of captive-reared bobwhites on sites with and without resident populations, (2) translocation of wild-trapped bobwhites from a region of high population density to a region with no population, and (3) release of captive-reared and wild-translocated bobwhites acclimated on site prior to release in year 2. Wild-translocated birds survived longer than captive-reared birds. Mean survival for captive-reared bobwhites was 2.42 weeks, and 4.27 weeks in year 1, and 1.91 and 1.40 weeks in year 2, for study sites without resident and with resident birds present, respectively. Mean survival for wild-translocated birds was 8.50 weeks in year 1, and 11.54 weeks in year 2. Wild-translocated birds dispersed shorter distances than captive-reared birds. Both captive-reared and wild-translocated bobwhites only nested on study sites with conspecifics. Captive-reared birds had 0 nesting attempts on the site with no resident bobwhites, and ⩾8 nests on the site with resident bobwhites. Wild-translocated females nested six times and were subsequently observed with juveniles. On-site acclimation did not increase post-release survival for northern bobwhites. Acclimation increased site fidelity but reduced survival for captive-reared birds and had no impact on survival for wild-translocated bobwhites. Population restoration by release of captive-reared or wild-translocated birds is not irrelevant, but further investigation is needed into the relationship between captive-reared birds and predators, and methods to increase survival and reproduction of released birds.

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