Tweeters and OBOLinks,

I am forwarding the attached message, which I sent to the
"Inland-NW-Birders" group earlier today. I hope you will find it of
interest, whether or not you agree with my point of view.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne C. Weber <contopus at telus.net>
To: CHARLES SWIFT <charless at moscow.com>; INLAND NW BIRDERS
<inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [inland-NW-birders] Mountain Quail releases


Charles and Inland Birders,

Thanks very much for providing the link to the WDFW news release
about
the release of 73 Mountain Quail in Asotin County. Mike Denny also
described this event in a message a few days ago.

This release was clearly well-intentioned. However, it has the
potential for being both good news and bad news.

Good news, because Mountain Quail populations in SE WA, NE
OR, and adjacent Idaho are apparently very low, and a recovery
of this species would be welcome. Bad news, because according
to the news release, the birds that were liberated were captured
in SW Oregon.

Two different subspecies of Mountain Quail occur in Oregon, according
to "Birds of Oregon: A General Reference" (Marshall et al., 2003):
"pictus" west of the Cascades, and "palmeri", a paler subspecies, east
of the Cascades (and also in SE Washington). The AOU Checklist, 5th
edition (1957) reverses the names for the two subspecies, but agrees
that there are different subspecies west and east of the Cascades.

In other words, birds from a subspecies other than the native one are
being introduced into Asotin County. Chances are that they will not be
well-adapted to local conditions and will die out; or, if they do
succeed, they will interbreed with or replace the native subspecies,
thus decreasing the genetic diversity within the species.

A far better approach, it seems to me, would have been to try to
capture birds of the eastern subspecies (palmeri), breed them in
captivity, and then reintroduce them into SE WA. There are apparently
still enough Mountain Quail in Wallowa County, OR, that there is still
a hunting season there, so some could perhaps have been captured
there.

If Mountain Quail are to be reintroduced to Craig Mountain and other
places in Idaho, I hope that these birds are not also from SW Oregon.

Introducing a population of a non-local subspecies seems ill-advised
from a biological point of view. I had thought that most state
wildlife agencies had ceased some time ago to introduce non-native
species or subspecies of gamebirds. Obviously, I was wrong.

Of course, it may be that the subspecies of Mountain Quail in SE WA
and NE OR has already been confounded by past introductions into the
area. However, by continuing to introduce the "wrong" subspecies into
the area, wildlife agencies appear to be ignoring normal conservation
practices. They are also playing into the hands of those who say that
Great Basin populations of Mountain Quail are not distinct anyway, so
why designate them as threatened?


Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Swift <charless at uidaho.edu>
To: inland birders <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1:46 PM
Subject: [inland-NW-birders] Mountain Quail releases


Hi All -

Here is the news bulletin from WA Fish & Wildlife on the Mountain
Quail release at Asotin Creek WMA:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/do/mar05/mar1505a.htm.
There is also a release planned on Craig Mountain in Nez Perce
Co., ID (east of the Asotin Creek location). A number of people
involved in this project are subscribed to inland birders.

thanks, Charles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Swift
charless at moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~