Ol' Gobblero
Senior Member
2 right now.
Can you post the link to the study that says mice and rats prey on eggs, chicks, and poults? I’ve done a lot of reading but haven’t come across that yet.Been thinking about intensive predator control and lessons learned in wildlife management. Most significant is the concept of ICMF= inter-compensating mortality factors. Simply put, if one thing don't get 'em something else will. So let's say, when you take out the cats, coons, and canines this releases the pressure on their main prey base, namely rats and mice. These populations increase and in turn start preying on some of the things you thought you were protecting i.e. the nests of ground nesting birds. You gotta' know that there are way more rats and mice in a given habitat than say quail, turkey, and deer, so predators which are opportunistic, have more opportunities of encountering and eating rats and mice. This is not to say that predators don't prey on the large items, but that without habitat management removing the large obvious predators is mostly a feel good measure for the landowner/trapper. Don't mean to rain on anybody's parade by any means, just a fact of life. KEEP ON TRAPPING AND FEELING GOOD!
I know what you mean!I believe they are now using the cotton rat as a gauge for the predator population on properties...at least that is what Tall Timbers has said recently. I have some experience on the large scale trapping but being a 1 man show it's tough to put up the kind of numbers it takes to trap that amount of acreage so I just stick to the smaller tracts that I can handle on my own. I work on occasion with a fella that traps full time every day, 365 days a year on those enormous properties down south and it is a different ball game for sure. My hat is off to the folks that have the stamina to do that volume day in and day out....I'm getting too old for that! LOL
Tight chains everyone!!
Just google cotton rats preying on quail nests.
I'm not saying that meso predators don't prey on quail and turkey, just that removing them may not be all that's needed to enhance the populations. I like trapping coyotes, cats and coons as good as the next fellar, been at 50+ years. I just look at furbearers as sustainable resource. ICMF doesn't go out of date.
If you need to convince yourself of the futility of a war on coyotes whether public, private or individual all you got to do is look at how long they've been at war with 'em in the west. And there's still enough for the big coyote guys to rack up huge numbers year after year.
Keep on trapping!
Good post.Now there is also the idea that when rat numbers are high, with increasingly high avian predator populations, that the rats can actually reduce avian predation on quail. If this is true, then reducing meso predator numbers will increase rat numbers and decrease avain predation on quail. Some places now even have rat piles, essentially tree piles, to increase rat numbers.
Quail research is the most dynamic, ever changing research there is. What was thought to be true even 5 years ago has been proven incorrect. What always holds true is that habitat modification/management will often increase quail numbers more than any other aspect of “growing” quail.