UNT expert available to discuss how recent rainfalls are a benefit to North Texas quail populations.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - 21:22

UNT Quail Executive Director Kelly Reyna is available to discuss how recent rainfalls are a benefit to North Texas quail populations. Reyna can be reached at 940-565-4287 or Kelly.Reyna@unt.edu.

"Quail have declined 80% since 1967 and in Texas, the population trend strongly correlates with long-term weather patterns," Reyna said. "The historical thought process is that if it rains in the spring we will have a good quail year and if it does not, the quail generally decline. Our new research takes this thought process a bit farther and examines heat stress as a confounder of the quail-rain paradigm."

"That is, if it rains in the spring with a mild summer, we will have a quail population boom and if the summer is extremely hot, the negative effects of the heat will outweigh the benefits of the rain. This is due to reproduction, if it's hot, the quail simply won't reproduce," he said. "This year the rain has been great for quail and the temperatures have been mild. We are hearing more quail and recording more mating. If we have a mild to moderate summer, we will likely see more quail than we have in the last 10 years."

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