SEAFWA Journal Volume 4, March 2017

Concentrating hunters on dove fields could place mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) and other ground foraging birds at risk of lead poisoning. We collected soil samples during three time periods (pre-soil disturbance [i.e., disking], post-soil disturbance [disking, roller harrow, planting], and post-hunting / field preparation [i.e., mowing, raking, burning]) to determine if soil disturbance reduced the amount of lead shot potentially available to ground foraging birds in managed dove fields. We also collected soil samples in the woods adjacent to these fields. Disking and site preparation...

Anthropogenic pressure can have significant impacts on how wildlife move and how they use habitats. During 2014-2016, we deployed 41 GPS transmitters on male wild turkeys on the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Webb Wildlife Management Area (WMA) Complex to evaluate effects of hunting intensity on male wild turkey movement ecology. Daily mean movement distance was 3,254 m day-1, but there was significant variation in our mean estimate (SD = 1,478) with movements ranging from 137 to 14,599 m on any given day. Male wild turkeys slightly decreased their movements in response to...

In 2011, the Texas state legislature legalized hand fishing as a harvest method for cat fish in Texas. Although large cat fish (>600 mm total length [TL]) are expected to be vulnerable to this fishing method, little is known about hand fishers or their harvest practices. To help make informed management decisions and better understand how hand fishers compare to other Texas' cat fish anglers, we surveyed hand fishers to collect information on their demographics and fishing activities. Survey respondents (n = 118) were primarily preexisting cat fish fishermen who already utilized other...

Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) are a commercially-exploited species harvested primarily for their roe. e objectives of this study were to describe population characteristics of paddlefish in the lower Mississippi River (LMR) of Arkansas and use population-simulation so ware to deter- mine the length limit required to prevent recruitment over fishing by maintaining spawning potential ratios (SPR) over 30%. Paddlefish (n = 534) were collected from the LMR in cooperation with commercial fishers during the 2008-2011 commercial seasons. Lengths ranged 150-1095 mm eye-fork length and ages, 2-24...

Coastal rivers can support quality largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) fishing, but recruitment failure and habitat availability can influence population size and structure because of the dynamic nature of these systems. Stocking success in coastal river systems has been rarely evaluated. is study examined stocking success of oxytetracycline (OTC) marked F1 intergrade Florida (M.s. oridanus) and northern (M.s. salmoides) fingerling largemouth bass in the tidal Chickahominy River, Virginia. Fish were stocked at a density of 62 fish ha-1 in spring 2006 (mean TL = 54 mm) and 2007 (mean TL...

Effective harvest management for mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) requires information regarding factors affecting harvest. We tested the effects of spinning-wing decoys (SWDs) on mourning dove harvest vulnerability on dove fields in central Tennessee during opening weekend of hunting 2007 and 2008. Use of a SWD did not affect numbers of shots red, doves harvested, doves missed, or doves crippled. Heavy hunting pressure may have limited SWD effects on dove harvest by hunters using them. Use of SWDs does not seem to increase overall harvest in mourning dove populations, so regulations...

Providing a suffcient quantity of nutritional forage should be an integral component of any white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management plan that aims to maximize deer condition and quality. Deer managers generally attempt to meet the nutritional needs of their herd through some combination of habitat management, food plot production, and/or supplemental feed provisioning. However, nutritional demands of deer and forage quality and abundance fluctuate throughout the year, creating nutritional stress periods and a dilemma for managers regarding how to maximize the nutritional...

Published reports indicate night electrofishing may be superior to day sampling to estimate density and diversity of collected shes in some aquatic habitats. However, because shallow, highly turbid waters characteristic of river floodplains present fish detection, navigation, and safety concerns during night electrofishing, many southeastern floodplain sampling programs have focused on day electrofishing. We used paired day and night samples of shes collected by transect (200 m distance for eight minutes) and point electro fishing (1 minute at four points spaced 25 m apart) to assess...

Technological advances allow researchers to increase the quality and quantity of spatial information gathered for movement ecology and range estimation. We conducted a field experiment to assess accuracy of PinPoint GPS transmitters for use on small avian species using northern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) as our test species. We conducted a series of static tests to evaluate relative impacts of canopy cover across a suite of data collection schedules. We also evaluated GPS units on 6 wild northern bobwhite quail trapped in north-central Texas. Radial error estimates from static...

Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) provides managed dove fields that are open for public dove hunting. Our goal was to examine public mourning dove hunting demand and opportunity in Georgia along with the spatial and temporal distribution of each. We defined public fields as fields owned or operated by WRD and open to any properly licensed hunter, and we defined public demand as the number of hunters that utilized those fields. We used a hunter survey to estimate the number of public dove hunters, their county of residence, the average number of days afield, and the timing of...