The effects of mowing and agricultural landscape management on population movements of the common quail

Abstract

Aim Information on the movements of bird populations in extensive landscapes is needed to assess environmental effects and conservation strategies over appropriate temporal and spatial scales. The common quail (Coturnix coturnix) is a game bird that breeds mainly in dense cereal crops. These crops cover huge areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of this work is to relate cereal mowing, which causes rapid and massive habitat loss for the common quail, to population movements of the species during its breeding season. Location Spain, southern Europe. Methods We used ring recoveries to analyse, using circular statistics, the orientation of movements by male common quails in the northern half of Spain. Forward stepwise multiple regressions were applied to correlate (1) the Julian day of cereal harvesting at 770 locations with the respective latitude, longitude and elevation, and (2) the number of hunted birds with hunting pressure, breeding densities and mean mowing date by province. Finally, data concerning the number of quails hunted at the end of the breeding season were compared by province and year using two‐way ANOVA. Results Our results show that during the breeding season in the northern half of Spain, male quails orient their movements towards higher areas, and mainly to the northern Castilian Plateau. These are the areas of Spain where cereals are harvested latest. Moreover, records show that the number of quails hunted is significantly higher in these areas than in other areas of the country, independently of hunting pressure and breeding densities, and it is extremely high in the northern Castilian Plateau. Main conclusions Cereal mowing combined with some Spanish geographical characteristics acts as a funnel, forcing quail populations to concentrate in certain areas of Spain at the end of the breeding season. This implies that the number of quails hunted in these areas may be high, and that they therefore constitute priority conservation areas.

Detecting slow introgression of invasive alleles in an extensively restocked game bird

“…Its European breeding population is estimated to consist of several millions of individuals (8,400,000-14,100,000, BirdLife International, 2004) that move nomadically across the breeding range looking for suitable habitat (Puigcerver et al, 1989;Rodríguez-Teijeiro et al, 2009) and mates (Rodríguez-Teijeiro et al, 2006). This game species is of high economic and recreational interest in southern Europe; millions of quails are killed every hunting season (Guyomarc'h, 2003).…”

The Impact of Unmown Refuge-Strips on the Breeding Site Fidelity of Common Quail (Coturnix Coturnix) – A Case Study

“…Based on the recorded calls, several birds have been re-identified proving that the uncut strips can still provide suitable foraging and nesting habitat for Common Quails, despite the fact that this species is reported to be highly nomadic during the breading season in some regions (HERRMANN & DASSOW, 2006). As foreign researches showed, in the course of harvesting and mowing Common Quails are consequently moving to new optimal habitats for breeding (PUIGCERVER et al, 1999;RODRÍGUEZ-TEIJEIRO et al, 2009). The five birds detected only during the second survey after mowing might have arrived from completely harvested or mown neighbouring areas.…”

“…Since harvesting and mowing often takes place during the breeding season, both chicks and nesting birds are often killed by these processes (BROYER 1996, RODRÍGUEZ-TEIJEIRO et al, 2009. Some studies revealed, the harvesting and mowing processes may be pushing Common Quails to search new breeding habitats (PUIGCERVER et al, 1999;RODRÍGUEZ-TEIJEIRO et al, 2009).…”

A lajta project fürj (coturnix coturnix linnaeus, 1758) állományának vizsgálata a 2013-2014 időszakban

“…Vizsgálataink során a RODRÍGUEZ- TEIJEIRO et al (2010) által javasolt, több országban (Spanyolország, Portugália, Franciaország, Marokkó) is tesztelt és eredményesen alkalmazott monitoring módszert vettük alapul. Megfelelő időjársi körülmények mellett, havonta egy alkalommal, a kora reggeli órákban minden egyes megfigyelési pontnál 1,5 perces hallgatózás után egy rövid idejű (20-25 sec.)…”