Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 10:03:51 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Re: Quail In-Reply-To: Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi -- About 18 months ago we took an August trip to Arizona. One of the places we visited was the Buenos Aires NWR. which is the site of release of the Masked Bobwhite (an endangered subspecies of Bobwhite). They had a display about the trials and tribulations of the release program, which at first was notably *unsuccessful*, with almost complete mortality of released birds despite their having been kept in outside pens, with access to native plants and food, for a long period before release. The major cause of mortality was predation and general lack of survival skills. It was not until they began to release young birds with older, wild-caught (and sterilized) adult Common Bobwhite that the program became successful. The older birds soon taught the youngsters how to avoid predators and other tricks of survival. A similar approach was used with the California Condors, when adult Andean Condors were co-released. I would think just raising quail and turning them loose wouldn't be very successful here either, with the number of predators and other hazards about. Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================