Quail hunting is a
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
sport. There are 21 subspecies of
northern bobwhite
The northern bobwhite (''Colinus virginianus''), also known as the Virginia quail or (in its home range) bobwhite quail, is a ground-dwelling bird native to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, with introduced populations elsewhere in th ...
, a ground-dwelling bird native to the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Many of the common larger species are hunted as
game bird
Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products (primarily meat), for recreation (" sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, thou ...
s.
History
The archaeological record from excavations of
indigenous peoples' sites in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
reveal few quail bones, suggesting that those early inhabitants focused on larger game that may have produced greater results for the effort involved. When European settlers arrived, quail hunting began in earnest.
Modern developments
Quail live throughout the United States. Quail hunting in the 20th century was the most popular game hunting sport.
Due to their popularity as game birds and their extensive distribution, quail have been studied throughout the North American continent, particularly in the 20th century.
In the twenty years from the late 1960s through the late 1980s, quail populations, as measured by hunting statistics, showed dramatic declines. Causes included disease, habitat reduction, hunting, weather variables and other impacts. These were addressed through formation of organizations such as
Quail Unlimited and through side benefits from the
1981 Farm Act, which encouraged farmers to remove highly eroded land from cultivation, thus increasing quail habitat.
See also
*
Dick Cheney hunting incident
On February11, 2006, then-United States vice president Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington, a then-78-year-old Texas attorney, with a 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun while participating in a quail hunt on a ranch in Riviera, Texas. Both Cheney and ...
References
Bibliography
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* Richard Rankin, Jr. 2017. ''While there were still wild birds: A personal history of Southern quail hunting''. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
{{Hunting topics
Fowling
Quails
Hunting by game