A Viewpoint concerning the Significance of Studies of Game Bird Food Habits
| Autor: | Gordon W. Gullion |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1966 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Condor. 68:372-376 |
| ISSN: | 1938-5129 0010-5422 |
| DOI: | 10.2307/1365451 |
| Popis: | In the past six or seven decades there have been numerous studies concerning the food habits of North American game birds. However, in recent years food studies have become somewhat passe, partly as a result of the belief that little useful information is gathered that can be used in the development of wildlife management plans (Kalmbach, 1954). In place of understanding game bird food requirements, wildlife managers have turned to various forms of habitat manipulation to increase populations, and too often have found their efforts to be futile. I can cite two examples from personal experience. First, an extensive water development ("gallinaceous guzzler") program in southern Nevada in the late 1940's failed to provide a hoped-for population expansion in Gambel's Quail (Lophortyx gambelii) because much of the area affected by development lacked an adequate food resource, and food is even more important than water to the desert quail. These quail can exist quite well in the proper environments without preformed drinking water but not without food (Gullion, 1960; Hungerford, 1962; Gullion and Gullion, 1964). Second, we still apparently know too little about the food requirements of Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), the voluminous studies of Bump et al. (1947) and others, notwithstanding, to understand fully the reasons for the periodic drastic fluctuations of population size, or to develop effective forest management plans that have resulted in significant, sustained increases in Ruffed Grouse populations. P, Three basic factors are believed to be responsible for this situation. First, most game bird food studies have been based on samples obtained in the fall from hunterkilled birds, and therefore represent items taken at the time of year when the greatest amount of food is normally available, both in quantity and variety. These fall-taken samples are often comparatively meaningless, even if carefully evaluated in terms of the variety and abundance of foods locally available to the birds (and this frequently is not done).' Second, most studies are short-term, representing one or two years' thesis research, or a short-lived (2 or 3 years) intensive state game research project. Third, seldom are the food studies related to the status of the population of birds being sampled; that is, the investigators do not specify whether the population is static, rising, or falling; the density of the species (for comparison with other areas); and how the physical condition of the birds sampled compares with a normal or standard condition. With these shortcomings it is hardly surprising that little has been learned that can be used significantly in developing long-range management programs for many native game birds. Indeed, there have been some published food studies of imported game birds that, in view of the species' failures to become established, can best be interpreted as reflecting diets that could not sustain the birds. Food studies are needed that critically sample local game bird populations during times of stress as well as during periods of population upswing as was done by Lehmann (1953). Too often it has been assumed that a wide diversity of foods available, and taken, represents a desirable and adequate food situation, at least among the gallinaceous game birds. As Errington (1936:356) pointed out long ago, "The feeding tendencies of vertebrates generally may be rather indiscriminate ... " The presence of certain food items in the digestive system, even in abundance or with |
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