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Arizona Quail: Species In Jeopardy?, Ron Engel-Wilson, William P. Kuvlesky Jr.

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

We begin the 21st century with the Midwestern northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) range reduced to a small portion of its historic distribution. This precipitous decline occurred largely during the last quarter of the 20th century, coincident with widespread intensive agricultural land use, unchecked natural plant succession, and frequent severe weather. Various bobwhite enthusiasts of the 1960s–1980s era including Klimstra, Dumke and Stanford had evaluated agricultural land use trends and predicted the near demise of bobwhites that we now lament. Alarmed upland bird hunters have repeatedly spurred policy makers and administrators into action. However, because bobwhites still are only an incidental …