Abstract
The manner by which animals use space and select resources can have important management consequences. We studied patterns of habitat selection by northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area, Charlotte County, Florida and evaluated factors influencing the sizes of their home ranges. A total of 1,245 radio-tagged bobwhites were monitored for 19,467 radio days during 2002–2007. The mean ( ± 1 SE) annual home range size, estimated using the Kernel density method, was 88.43 ( ± 6.16) ha and did not differ between genders. Winter home ranges of bobwhites (69.27 ± 4.92 ha) were generally larger than summer home ranges (53.90 ± 4.93 ha). Annual and winter home ranges were smaller for bobwhites whose ranges contained food plots compared to those that did not; however, the presence of food plots did not influence summer home ranges. We used distance-based methods to investigate habitat selection by bobwhites at two scales: selection of home ranges within the study site (second-order selection) and selection of habitats within home ranges (third-order selection). Across both scales, bobwhites generally preferred food plots and dry prairie habitat and avoided wet prairies and roads. This pattern was generally consistent between genders and across years. Our data indicate that management practices aimed at increasing and maintaining a matrix of food plots and dry prairie habitat would provide the most favorable environment for bobwhites.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aebischer NJ, Robertson PA, Kenward RE (1993) Compositional analysis of habitat use from animal radio-tracking data. Ecology 74:1313–1325
Allen CR, Lutz RS, Demarais S (1995) Red imported fire ant impacts on northern bobwhite populations. Ecological Applications 5:632–638
Badyaev AV, Etges WJ, Martin TE (1996) Ecological and behavioral correlates of variation in seasonal home ranges of wild turkeys. The Journal of Wildlife Management 60:154–164
Barnes TG, Madison LA, Sole JD, Lacki MJ (1995) An assessment of habitat quality for northern bobwhite in tall fescue-dominated fields. Wildlife Society Bulletin 23:231–237
Begg CM, Begg KS, Du Toit JT, Mills MGL (2005) Spatial organization of the honey badger Mellivora capensis in the southern Kalahari: home-range size and movement patterns. Journal of Zoology 265:23–35
Bell B, Dancek K, Zwank PJ (1985) Range, movements, and habitat use by bobwhites in southern Louisiana pinelands. Proceedings of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 39:512–519
Bingham RL, Brennan LA (2004) Comparison of type I error rates for statistical analyses of resource selection. Journal of Wildlife Management 68:206–212
Boyce MS, McDonald LL (1999) Relating populations to habitats using resource selection functions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14:268–272
Brennan LA (1991) How can we reverse the northern bobwhite population decline. Wildlife Society Bulletin 19:544–555
Brennan LA, Kuvlesky WP (2005) North American grassland birds: an unfolding conservation crisis? Journal of Wildlife Management 69:1–13
Burger LW, Miller DA, Southwick RI (1999) Economic impact of northern bobwhite hunting in the southeastern United States. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:1010–1018
Chapman NG, Claydon K, Claydon M, Forde PG, Harris S (1993) Sympatric populations of muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)—a comparative analysis of their ranging behavior, social organization and activity. Journal of Zoology 229:623–640
Conner LM, Smith MD, Burger LW (2003) A comparison of distance-based and classification-based analyses of habitat use. Ecology 84:526–531
Conner LM, Smith MD, Burger LW (2005) A comparison of distance-based and classification-based analyses of habitat use: reply. Ecology 86:3125–3129
Dimmick RW (1992) Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). US Army Corps of Engineers Wildlife Resources Management Manual. Technical Report EL-92-18, Section 4.1.3, p 74
Dimmick RW, Hostetler JA, Hines T, Brinkley S, Percival HF, and Oli MK (2010) Hunting pressure, harvest rates, mortality and survival of northern bobwhites in South Florida. Proceedings of the Game Bird Conference 2006: Quail VI and Perdix XII. 31 May - 4 June 2006. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Athens, GA, USA.
Dixon KR, Horner MA, Anderson SR, Henriques WD, Durham D, Kendall RJ (1996) Northern bobwhite habitat use and survival on a South Carolina plantation during winter. Wildlife Society Bulletin 24:627–635
Favaron M, Scherini GC, Preatoni D, Tosi G, Wauters LA (2006) Spacing behaviour and habitat use of rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) at low density in the Italian Alps. Journal of Ornithology 147:618–628
FenskeCrawford TJ, Niemi GJ (1997) Predation of artificial ground nests at two types of edges in a forest-dominated landscape. Condor 99:14–24
Fleming KK, Giuliano WM (2001) Reduced predation of artificial nests in border-edge cuts on woodlots. Journal of Wildlife Management 65:351–355
Fretwell SD, Lucas HL (1970) On territorial behavior and other factors influencing habitat distribution in birds. Acta Biotheoretica 19:16–36
Frye OEJ (1954) Aspects of the ecology of the bobwhite quail in Charlotte County, Florida. PhD dissertation, University of Florida, p 363
Giuliano WM, Allen CR, Lutz RS, Demarais S (1996) Effects of red imported fire ants on northern bobwhite chicks. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:309–313
Guthery FS (1997) A philosophy of habitat management for northern bobwhites. Journal of Wildlife Management 61:291–301
Guthery FS, Crews AK, Lusk JJ, Chapman RN, Sams M (2004a) Effects of bag limits on bobwhite hunters and harvest. Journal of Wildlife Management 68:1095–1103
Guthery FS, Hiller TL, Puckett WH, Baker RA, Smith SG, Rybak AR (2004b) Effects of feeders on dispersion and mortality of bobwhites. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32:1248–1254
Guthery FS, Peterson MJ, George RR (2000) Viability of northern bobwhite populations. Journal of Wildlife Management 64:646–662
Haines AM, Hernandez F, Henke SE, Bingham RL (2004) Effects of road baiting on home range and survival of northern bobwhites in southern Texas. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32:401–411
Hernandez F, Hernandez F, Arredondo JA, Bryant FC, Brennan LA, Bingham RL (2005) Influence of precipitation on demographics of northern bobwhites in southern Texas. Wildlife Society Bulletin 33:1071–1079
Hiller TL, Guthery FS, Rybak AR, Fuhlendorf SD, Smith SG, Puckett WH, Baker RA (2007) Management implications of cover selection data: Northern bobwhite example. Journal of Wildlife Management 71:195–201
Holt RD (1985) Population dynamics in two-patch environments: some anomalous consequences of an optimal habitat distribution. Theoretical Population Biology 28:181–208
Hooge PN, Eichenlaub B (2000) Animal movement extension to Arcview. ver. 2.0. . Alaska Science Center–Biological Science Office, US Geological Survey, Anchorage, AK, USA
Johnson DH (1980) The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference. Ecology 61:65–71
Kenward MG, Roger JH (1997) Small sample inference for fixed effects from restricted maximum likelihood. Biometrics 53:983–997
Koehler GM, Pierce DJ (2003) Black bear home-range sizes in Washington: climatic, vegetative, and social influences. Journal of Mammalogy 84:81–91
Lusk JJ, Guthery FS, DeMaso SJ (2001) Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) abundance in relation to yearly weather and long-term climate patterns. Ecological Modelling 146:3–15
Madison LA, Robel RJ, Jones DP (2002) Hunting mortality and overwinter survival of northern bobwhites relative to food plots in Kansas. Wildlife Society Bulletin 30:1120–1127
Moyer MA, McCown JW, Oli MK (2007) Factors influencing home-range size of female Florida black bears. Journal of Mammalogy 88:468–476
Mueller JM, Dabbert CB, Demarais S, Forbes AR (1999) Northern bobwhite chick mortality caused by red imported fire ants. Journal of Wildlife Management 63:1291–1298
Ndithia H, Perrin MR (2006) The spatial ecology of the rosy-faced lovebird Agapornis roseicollis in Namibia. Ostrich 77:52–57
Oberheu DG, Dabbert CB (2001) Aflatoxin contamination in supplemental and wild foods of northern bobwhite. Ecotoxicology 10:125–129
Oka T (1992) Home range and mating system of 2 sympatric field-mouse species, Apodemus speciosus and Apodemus argenteus. Ecological Research 7:163–169
Pedersen EK, Grant WE, Longnecker MT (1996) Effects of red imported fire ants on newly-hatched northern bobwhite. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:164–169
Perkins MW, Conner LM (2004) Habitat use of fox squirrels in southwestern Georgia. Journal of Wildlife Management 68:509–513
Peterson MJ (2001) Northern bobwhite and scaled quail abundance and hunting regulation: a Texas example. Journal of Wildlife Management 65:828–837
Pulliam HR (1988) Sources, sinks and population regulation. American Naturalist 132:652–661
Robel RJ, Kemp KE (1997) Winter mortality of northern bobwhites: effects of food plots and weather. Southwestern Naturalist 42:59–67
Roseberry JL, Richards BJ, Hollenhorst TP (1994) Assessing the potential impact of conservation reserve program lands on bobwhite habitat using remote-sensing, GIS, and habitat modeling. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 60:1139–1143
Samson C, Huot J (1998) Movements of female black bears in relation to landscape vegetation type in southern Quebec. Journal of Wildlife Management 62:718–727
SAS Institute (2009) SAS/STAT 9.2 user’s guide: the GLIMMIX procedure. SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina
Sauer JR, Hines JE, Thomas I, Fallon J, Gouch G (2004) The North American breeding bird survey, results, and analysis, 1966–1999
Seaman DE, Powell RA (1996) An evaluation of the accuracy of kernel density estimators for home range analysis. Ecology 77:2075–2085
Sisson DC, Stribling HL, Speake DW (2000) Effects of supplemental feeding on home range size and survival of northern bobwhites in South Georgia. In: Brennan LA, Palmer WE, Burger LW Jr, Pruden TL (eds) Quail IV: Proceedings of the Fourth National Quail Symposium, pp 128–131 (254 pp)
Slade NA, Russell LA, Doonan TJ (1997) The impact of supplemental food on movements of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Journal of Mammalogy 78:1149–1155
Sutherland WJ (1996) Predicting the consequences of habitat loss for migratory populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B–Biological Sciences 263:1325–1327
Taylor JS, Church KE, Rusch DH (1999a) Microhabitat selection by nesting and brood-rearing northern bobwhite in Kansas. Journal of Wildlife Management 63:686–694
Taylor JS, Church KE, Rusch DH, Cary JR (1999b) Macrohabitat effects on summer survival, movements, and clutch success of northern bobwhite in Kansas. Journal of Wildlife Management 63:675–685
Taylor JS, Guthery FS (1994) Components of northern bobwhite brood habitat in southern Texas. Southwestern Naturalist 39:73–77
Terhune TM, Sisson DC, Stribling HL, Carroll JP (2006) Home range, movement, and site fidelity of translocated northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in southwest Georgia, USA. European Journal of Wildlife Research 52:119–124
Townsend DE, Lochmiller RL, DeMaso SJ, Leslie DM, Peoples AD, Cox SA, Parry ES (1999) Using supplemental food and its influence on survival of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:1074–1081
Webb WM, Guthery FS (1983) Avian response to habitat management for northern bobwhites in northwest Texas. Journal of Wildlife Management 47:220–222
Whitaker DM, Stauffer DF, Norman GW, Devers PK, Edwards J, Giuliano WM, Harper CE, Igo W, Sole JD, Spiker H, Tefft B (2007) Factors associated with variation in home-range size of appalachian ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). The Auk 124:1407–1474
Williams CK, Guthery FS, Applegate RD, Peterson MJ (2004) The northern bobwhite decline: scaling our management for the twenty-first century. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32:861–869
Wiseman DS, Lewis JC (1981) Bobwhite use of habitat in tallgrass rangeland. Wildlife Society Bulletin 9:248–255
Worton BJ (1989) Kernel methods for estimating the utilization distribution in home-range studies. Ecology 70:164–168
Yo SP, Lin YS, Howard WE (1992) Home range dynamics of red-bellied tree squirrels (Callosciurus erythraeus) in Chitou. Bulletin of the Institute of Zoology Academia Sinica 31:199–211
Yoho NS, Dimmick RW (1972) Habitat utilization by bobwhite quail during winter. In: Morrison JA, Lewis JC (eds) Quail I: Proceedings of the First National Bobwhite Quail Symposium, pp 90–99
Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Walker NJ, Saveliev AA, Smith GM (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Springer, New York
Acknowledgments
We thank Ralph W. Dimmick and Stephen Brinkley for leading the field data collection efforts; this work would not have been possible without their dedicated work. We thank M. Kemmerer and C. Pope for providing information on the history and management of the WMA, for assistance with equipment maintenance, and for general counsel and advice as the study progressed. A. Brinkley, G. Coker, C. McKelvy, D. Caudill, S. Dimmick, D. Holt, J. McGrady, J. Sloane, J. Scott, and L. Taylor assisted with data collection. T. O’Meara provided valuable advice throughout the study. R. Dimmick and W. Palmer and V. Rolland provided many helpful comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to the many volunteers from the Southwest Florida Chapter of Quail Unlimited who aided the research in many ways. Research was funded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Florida. We thank two anonymous reviewers for many helpful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by C. Gortázar
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Appendix A
(DOC 244 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, A., Hines, T.C., Hostetler, J.A. et al. Patterns of space and habitat use by northern bobwhites in South Florida, USA. Eur J Wildl Res 57, 15–26 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0393-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0393-x