A Promising New Tool in the Fight to Conserve Bobwhite Quail – Garden & Gun

It's not easy being a bobwhite quail. Like many other species, this iconic wild bird has suffered from the fragmentation and loss of its grassland habitat, particularly over the last 50 years. And its predators are numerous, ranging from skunks to raccoons to snakes to aerial menaces like the Cooper's hawk, which can swoop down in mid-air and snatch a quail in its talons. “A quail has to be an elite athlete every day,” says Ronald Kendall, a professor of environmental toxicology at Texas Tech University. “Everyone wants to eat him.”

Another reason why bobwhites have experienced catastrophic declines across much of their native range in the Southeast, says Kendall, who directs (and was one of) the university's Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory. G&G“s Southern Heroes” in 2020) are the internal enemies: infestations with parasitic eyeworms and appendix worms, which the birds contract by eating infected insects such as crickets and grasshoppers. Once the parasites take hold, they increase stress on the birds, weaken their immune systems and suppress their energy, making them easier prey for predators. This can lead to a drastic decline in quail populations within a population.

In the Rolling Plains of Texas, says Kendall, an avid hunter himself who owns a ranch outside Lubbock, “we've had two major accidents in just over a decade,” one in 2010 and 2011 and another seven years ago later. “Every time we hit a population peak, there is a crash, and I think that's largely due to disease. “I've seen the very best quail habitat lose ninety percent of their quail, and they haven't hunted for five years.” But now, thanks to recent support from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Kendall has a powerful new weapon it can help save and stabilize the remaining wild populations.

Earlier this year, after a laborious, nearly decade-long process, the FDA approved QuailGuard, a medicated feed developed by Kendall that combats the parasites and helps prevent quail populations from rock bottom. It recently became available in 50-pound bags at feed stores throughout West Texas; The FDA recommends landowners strategically administer it twice a year, in the spring and fall, for 21 days each, in special metal feeders that protect the birds from predators so they can feed undisturbed. More than 60 percent of profits from the sale will go to nonprofits such as the Dallas-based Park Cities Quail Coalition and the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, both of which have helped raise funds to support Kendall's long-term research – at least $5 million US dollars, he estimates.

“This is the first commercially available wildlife drug treatment in U.S. history to be delivered in natural habitats,” says Kendall. “We have found it to be very safe and extremely effective in eliminating the parasites from these birds. The quail survive longer, and these increases in survival result in more breeding birds in the spring. The entire goal was sustainable, huntable populations, and we are achieving that at our demonstration farms,” four private locations in Texas and western Oklahoma. “We don’t see these crashes.”

Could QuailGuard help revive wild quail in other parts of their native range in the Southeast? It's too early to tell, but Kendall has high hopes. “I expect this to be more than just Texas,” he says. “The QuailGuard organization has told me they are already hearing from Florida and the Carolinas. Based on the data we’re seeing, I think it’s going to be game-changing.”