Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[Bobwhite quail call] The bobwhite quail population in Texas is decreasing due in part to habitat fragmentation caused by development.

What happens in habitat fragmentation is that you take large pieces of habitat and you cut them up into smaller and smaller pieces of habitat that are farther and farther apart.

Kyle Brazil, leader of the Audubon Texas quail and grassland bird program, helps us understand the issue of habitat fragmentation as it pertains to quail.

They don’t fly well, and they don’t move very far, in general. So, if you have one piece of habitat that is five miles away from the next nearest piece of habitat, there’s not going to be any movement between those piece of habitat. So, if you do have a quail population that goes extinct in one of those, it’s not going to be repopulated by birds from the other. In general, habitat fragmentation makes it harder for quail to persist.

Audubon Texas works with landowners to develop management strategies to preserve quail habitat in their care. Because, says Brazil, that habitat supports more than quail.

If you manage for quail, you’re also benefiting the whole suite of grassland birds and other grassland wildlife obligate species.

Learn about quail and Texas Audubon at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… or Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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