"The Compensatory Theory"

    Wildlife quail studies notoriously used the word "Compensatory" , as it concerns hunting impact on quail populations, and Game & Fish departments love to use this word. It is a tricky word, but do not worry, there will be no test on whether you come to understand or accept it at the end of this letter. It is deeply imbedded in the wildlife management culture. It is used to mean that hunter impact is "compensatory" in the sense that the harvest by hunters on bird population will not effect adversely the bird population since we simply are taking the birds that would die anyway by the time the breeding season begins well after the season. We are taking only the 'excess".

    Trust us, we had to dig deep to even understand what the wildlife department meant by this seemingly confusing word. "No Hunter Effect" would have gotten to the intent of the meaning quicker for the general public.

    We as hunters could easily see how we compensate in the strictest sense the game and fish departments by buying licenses and help local economies when we visit hunting areas. But in no way do we 'compensate' the bird in the short run by shooting them stone-cold dead. Nor have we yet compensated his would-be descendants that would have helped repopulated the birds the following season had we not shot his parent. One could never blame us at AzQA for lacking some sense of humor, and one needs it to understand this misnomer.

   Seriously, we all can accept this word on face value once we could see what the Department means by it. Again the axiom is based on the sound believe we do no long-term harm to some bird population, and that we can all accept. However, when it is applied too loosely, meaning to every type of quail is when things get a bit fuzzy.


                                       "Should the Compensatory Theory Apply to Mearns Quail?"

    For starters, the greatest influence on Mearns quail reproduction, outside of the accumulative health of it local environment, is on the rainfall that occurs in July and August, known as the 'monsoons' in Arizona which occurs four months after the Commission meeting takes place in April.  To set a bag limit for a bird in which its population will be decided by rainfall four months after the decision is made, of course, comes across immediately as tricky business. But when you automatically apply the conventional "Compensatory Theory" to the Mearns quail also, meaning it doesn't matter what the population turns out to be, nor what hunting pressure materialize, one could see what the thinking was based on. It may not make sense however.

   At present there is no tool or implemented program to find out or get any clue what percentage did survive before the Commission meets in April and decides the bag limit for the coming season. In the case of the Mearns,  there is no clue what the 'monsoons' will do, or what population of birds will be there .

   The upshot is that the "Compensatory Theory" covers all 'possible natural and man-made effects and even the most catastrophic events'. You may ask, is there anything wrong with the bag limit being set in September, based on what field surveys show and dependent on how the birds survived the hunting season, the long summer, and rains did occur and finally how many clutches they did pull off? Sure, but this will take work - we are willing to help.

    If we continue to do business as in the past however, then the fantastic kill in the 2000-2001 season suggest that there will be more than plenty of birds for this coming season (2001-2002) and we have nothing to fear. But just as plausible the case can be made that the exceptionally high kill was due to a series of unusual forces (amount of hunters, weather. etc) and really means we left too few birds for the Mearns quail to pull off another good hatch, even with excellent rains. Meaning we took more than our traditional 'harmless share" (up to 20%). Could this be possible? Se what happens this coming Mearns season - which has no reason but to be even better than last season. We will boldly predict it will only 40-50% of what it was in 2000-2001 and then it will be a very interesting to hear from the Department and the WGA why? We will be there.