Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Arizona
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Mearns' quail are a popular and iconic game bird in the American Southwest, including southeast Arizona. Little information currently exists on Mearns' quail population dynamics in southeast Arizona. Information on Mearns' quail population ecology is needed to help inform the setting of harvest regulations and identify additional data that can be collected through research or monitoring to help better estimate Mearns' quail abundance and monitor population trends. This project is a collaboration between the Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), and the University of Arizona. We will use age- and sex-at-harvest data collected by AZGFD to evaluate Mearns' quail population dynamics and determine how those dynamics are related to harvest and environmental conditions. We will also explore the feasibility of using statistical reconstruction population models to estimate Mearns’ quail abundance. Finally, we will provide recommendations for future research and monitoring. This information can be used to guide future management decisions related Mearns' quail.