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Behavioral ecology and conservation of new world quail  

My dissertation research was the first study of the ecology and behavior of the black-breasted wood-quail, Odontophorus leucolaemus, a Neotropical cloud forest endemic (Advisors: Colin Hughes and Bill Searcy).  Deforestation has reduced the species-wide population size and isolated the remaining populations in Costa Rica.  Surveys using playback of recorded group song revealed that black-breasted wood-quail are abundant in the Monteverde region.  Mean covey size was four adults (range = 2–9 adults) and mean density, which did not differ between fragmented and continuous forest, was one covey per 3.3 ha.  Wood-Quail defended all-purpose group territories and coveys persisted from one year to the next, indicating a group structure that is very different from what is found in most New World quail.  Larger groups produced significantly more juveniles than smaller groups in this population.  My study also provided the first acoustic analysis of the antiphonal duets and choruses produced by wood-quail pairs and coveys.  These vocalizations play an important role in territory advertisement and defense.  Analysis of relatedness, determined by microsatellite DNA markers, revealed that coveys formed, in part, by the retention of offspring on the natal territory.  While this finding lends some support to the hypothesized family-based structure of wood-quail populations, groups also contained unrelated same-sex individuals indicating that group structure is more complex than previously thought and/or the mating system is not limited to monogamy.  Spatial genetic structure also indicated that dispersal is restricted for both males and females.  Such constraints to dispersal may mean that population persistence will depend on sufficient connections among remaining forested areas.  This new information broadens our understanding of sociality in the New World quail and provides a base of knowledge that will serve in predicting, and hopefully alleviating, the risk of extinction to threatened Odontophorus quail.




     Partridge, Quail, and Francolin Specialist Group

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