An Open Letter
(by Fred Arbona)

The origin of AzQA lies with this past season, a season which found us, as always, hunting Mearns quail in southern Arizona during the months of November through February. In the beginning of the season we had no indication whatsoever, we would be spending the next eight months, after the closing of the quail season, involved in Arizona Quail Alliance which of course did not exist at the time.

During the latter half of the Mearns quail season we experienced and saw first hand the quick reduction of the bird population to the point that we found ourselves having to resort to travel further and further into the most inaccessible places to find birds in huntable numbers. Traditionally, we have for the previous 20 years not shot at birds whose covey constituted less than six birds,. That is one of our self-imposed 'rules' and the way we choose to play the 'game'. Because of the high survival of birds in past seasons, even at the end of the season, that was a 'rule' we could follow most of the time.

I personally located a total of 683 coveys during the months of November and December (2000), an exceptional year. I used a Garmin GPS to mark the coveys and made notes in the field as I found each covey. However, by the middle of the season, (January 5th, 2001) 534 of those coveys just simply vanished. Most alarmingly, was the quick reduction of the size of the coveys, which unlike previous seasons were down to 5-7 birds even on February 10th, the end of the season. This last season, by December 20th, most were down to 4-5 birds. The majority approached 2-4 bird 'coveys' by January 5th. Unfortunately that was before the coldest time of the year, when they may need a larger-sized clutch to survive the coldest weather that usually takes place during the month of January. (The "Fall Freeze" probability rises from 10% chance in early November, to 90% probability by December 25th and lasting through January 24th in Mearns quail country)

In the latter half of this past season, Mearns quail hunting evolved into traveling great distances every day from Patagonia, AZ to find birds in the most hidden canyons, in the thickest of country, places that are not a pleasure to hunt or to observe dog work. Beepers on dogs became a must. I told myself at the time, that is life. During this time however, I talked to many hunters, since on many occasions there were more hunters than birds, and got their impressions and opinions of the season in general. Most express the opinion that while there were a lot of birds at first, the season went downhill in quality in a hurry.

The fact was those birds in the most accessible areas were simply wiped out in the first four weeks of the season , and those still surviving in the remotest of places, or canyons accidentally bypassed at least for a time, eventually were significantly reduced in numbers also. There was no escape.

After the season, and suspecting that "something extraordinary took place", we (Dr. Tad Pfister and I) started to talk to the ranchers and asked them what numbers of birds they saw when they moved their cattle after the season. Cattle make great game 'beaters' since they tend to flush all game in their path. Their reports were alarming, they saw few birds and in numbers that did not compare remotely to previous years. That is when Arizona Quail Alliance started!

The first question should be: How could we start with such an exceptional numbers of birds in November 2000 and end up with so few by February 2001? Perhaps the first clue to this question lies in how many birds were 'harvested' this last season (see chart below). These numbers come from the Arizona Game & Fish Department and we were not available to us before we even decided to go to the Arizona Game & Fish Commission meeting in Phoenix, AZ on April 23rd, 2001 and express our concerns and field observations. Here are the harvest numbers from the Arizona Game & Fish Department.

The Commission Meeting (April 23rd, 2001)

The message we took to the meeting was: "Something Extraordinary Happened this Season and We May Have a Problem". Our presentation went as one may expect - it fell on some bewildered faces. Our only request was that at least we should move with some degree of caution toward the coming Mearns quail season and asked that the bag limit be scaled back to 8 birds per day - to be on the safe side. They were kind enough to listened and even move the discussion on Mearns quail to the end of the meeting to allow more time. We waited for 6 hours to make our infamous three-minute speech. We did peaked the interest of two out of the five Commission members at least which felt our message merited further consideration.

It did not help our cause, of course, that the recommendation of the Arizona Game & Fish Department was to keep the 15-bird limit for all birds for the coming season. A'side show', we had to endure was the immediate personal attack by the same "Hunter Group" that clamored for the raising of the bag limit to 15 birds the previous year. No harm done, it was a start, and like everything else that it is worthwhile, it always has a humble beginning.

"A Constant Bag Limit but Cyclical Rainfalls"

It may surprise you to know that the daily bag limits for all Arizona quail including the Mearns quail, are made in April and have gone as such for the last 20 years. The Scaled and Gambel quail have been set to15 birds per day regardless of regardless of rainfall.

What really influences Scaled and Gabble quail populations is the health of their habitat in general, and rainfall in the Fall and Winter months, the rainfall taking place four months before the Commission meets in April. While the daily bag limit for Scaled and Gambel quail could be based on concrete rainfall data and a good educated guess on how the birds will fare during the coming breeding months of May- September. - it is not quite how things are done. The logic of the constant bag limit of 15 birds a day then is that regardless of the rainfall, it will make no difference to change the bag limit. This axiom is is based on one key principle "The Compensatory Theory ".

"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 seehow 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 come upon this Earth 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 the 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, and this why I am covering this theory in such detail.

In hunting terms, if there are low amount of birds, understandably less will be shot and everything tends to self-regulate itself. In the case of the Scaled and Gambel quail, it appears to make perfect sense because of the nature of these two birds and the environment where they are found. These birds after all are found in open country, get wise quickly in low-number years, are multi-brooded allowing them to bounce back quickly, congregate in large groups in banner years and post guards, and are superb fliers since they fly twice a day to faraway waterholes. They are versatile and exceptional survivors and this exceptional adaptation is why they are found over most of the state of Arizona which is quite varied in elevation and thus in environments!

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.

Curiously, the Arizona Game & Fish Department has indeed strayed from the "Compensatory Theory" when it comes to the Mearns quail, suggesting they appreciate somewhat that he may be a special case. Note how his bag limit was reduced during the 1996-1999 years, yet was raised back to 15 birds a day for the 2000-2001 season, presumably because his numbers were strong during the previous season (1999-2000). It appears that the bag limit is set based on how the previous season went. If a lot of birds got killed, it must mean that a lot where there in the first place and here comes the leap in logic - a high percentage of the population must have survived. How does anyone knows this? Actually no ones does.

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 lead the way.

The Department doesn't not have a system to do the field surveys today, though they were conducted in past years. We can do them, AzQA will put the field surveys with hunters, pass the findings to the Department and they then set the limit. The Mearns season doesn't start for three months anyway.

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 (see below) 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%). How could this be even possible? See the next section.

In reality, the fundamental distribution of the Mearns Quail suggests that this is indeed is a "Special Bird, in a Special Environment and Merits Special Consideration". After all, he is found in a small portion of our state, which clearly shows how specialized he is in the first place (note shaded area of map on your left). His range is also prone to the same dramatic cyclical rainfall pattern as the rest of the state, which is why his numbers fluctuate like Scaled and Gambel quail do.

Foremost, he is totally different in behavior as the Scaled and Gambel quail, in the sense that he lives and dies barely 100 yards where he was born (Stromberg). He has but one brood a season, if he is lucky. He is reluctant to fly and prefer to hold ultra tight when danger arrives, which makes him dear to pointing-dog enthusiast, but a sucker for anyone only interested in shooting him as an alternative flying target. This past season we encountered two piles of dead Mearns (58 and 112 birds) in one canyon alone. Both cases were reported to the Arizona Game & Fish. There is something terribly wrong with this picture.

"The Mathematics of Defeat" - the 2000-2001 Mearns Quail Season"
In military terms, the "Mathematics of Defeat" means that no matter how well you fight to survive, insurmountable numbers along will dictate the outcome. For the Mearns quail, the insurmountable odds spelled his quick reduction in numbers this past season, through a combination of forces against him - manmade and natural. The reasons are listed below.

What is the plausibility of 10% of hunters being able to get a 15 bird limit just one day during the whole season? In the fly fishing industry 5% of the fisherman take 95% of the fish, it follows that it is no difference in Mearns hunting. We think a lower bag limits spreads the fun for all, gives the birds that much more time to acclimate to the hunting pressure and leaves that many more birds to ensure a great season next year.

The basic question is: Does anyone need to kill more than eight (8) Mearns a day to have fun? We do not think. More quail in the field for a longer period throughout the whole season means that much more fun for all of us over our pointing dogs - the essence of what Mearns quail is really all about.

The point is: "We limit our kill, or kill our limit" .

3. The third reality of the 2000-2001 Mearns quail season was the exceptional wet conditions which led to excellent dog-scenting conditions making the hunter in some cases too effective. In January 2000 we had (.10) rain and in 2001 we had 2.70 inches of rain. This is the same chart shown in the Forecast page.

4 The Mearns quail did not do well throughout its entire range this past year with the Arivaca range having a horrendous low population except in spots, and that reduced the huntable area by 35%. (See Map on left.) This map is included here to dramatically show the absurdity of expecting such a small area of the state to support all quail hunters normally spread out throughout it going after Scaled and Gambel quail.

Also important to note is that the area were the Mearns lives is easily huntable land, and it is largely public land. Most canyons, even the most remote have an old road going throughout. There is just no where to hide for these birds.

If we learned anything in the last six months, is that the Arizona Game & Fish Department is doing the very best in can and yes it could use our help, in a manner that does not interfere with all their other pressing issues. The Mearns quail is but a macrocosm of a very large picture, in a changing environment and with a large population growth in our state. We trust the things we are willing to do, not talk about it, but do, will help the Department embark upon a more dynamic policy towards the Mearns quail based a more active hunter input.