Temporal Patterns in Cause-specific Mortality of Northern Bobwhite in Northern Missouri
Northern bobwhite populations have been declining throughout most of their range. Population declines imply that mortality consistently exceeds production and therefore a thorough understanding of the causes and temporal distribution of mortality is important. We present Heisey-Fuller estimates of monthly survival and cause-specific mortality rates of 1,001 radio-marked bobwhite on private lands in northern Missouri during 1989-1992. Monthly survival rate was lowest during the hunting season (November-January)(jc = 0.639), intermediate during the breeding season (May-September) (x = 0.815...