Non-brooding northern bobwhite resource selection during breeding season
in a managed longleaf pine ecosystem
Abstract
Investigating resource selection patterns of declining species is
critical to developing effective conservation strategies and mitigating
negative population trends. We trapped and radio-collared northern
bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and recorded the location of each
individual three times per week during the northern bobwhite breeding
season (April – September) to infer resource selection by non-brooding
adults. We defined 13 vegetation communities with varying fire histories
and assessed their relative use via a distance-based logistic regression
model within a Bayesian framework. We found reliable evidence that
non-brooding northern bobwhite preferred supplemental feed lines,
recently burned natural pine stands, one-year rough in shrub/scrub, and
one-year rough in hardwood-pine stands. Conversely, we found they
avoided one-year rough in natural pine stands, recently burned
shrub/scrub, and recently burned hardwood-pine stands. Our data suggest
that non-brooding bobwhite’s successional stage preference may vary
between vegetation communities within the same study area and adds
further evidence to the importance of fire and vegetation interspersion
in bobwhite management. Results from our study may be applied to enhance
habitat for non-brooding northern bobwhite and potentially increase
adult survival, an important metric correlated with bobwhite population
growth.