Thomas R. Simpson

We investigated the feeding habits of wild northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) harvested from the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area in south Texas in October 2004 and January 2005. The contents of 200 crops were dried, sorted, and weighed to the nearest 0.0001 g. Percent dry weight was used to assess differences among season harvested, sex, and age. About 76% of the fall diet consisted of seeds, with 64 plant species represented. Croton (Croton spp.), woolly croton (Croton capitatus), and bristlegrass (Setaria sp.) composed greater than 50% by weight of seeds found in the fall diet....

Data from the use of live traps in marking and recapturing nutria (Myocastor coypus) for an estimate of the population size showed a disproportionate level of recapture in adults and subadults. The use of radio transmitters to determine movement and the use of steel traps and shooting to obtain recaptures demonstrated that the adult and subadult nutria were avoiding the live traps. Population estimates by the Schnabel method and the Lincoln Index illustrated the error introduced by trap avoidance. The use of a different recapture technique eliminated this source of error.