Why is their no quail in Jackson County Texas

[Avidhunter1356]

There use to be tons of quail in Jackson County Texas what happen?

[TXBRASS]

I always heard fire ants and feral hogs had a lot to do with quail depletion in many Texas counties. Not sure if that’s true or not.


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[BlackHogDown]

May be in the midst of "the shuffle." Ours just reappeared a few weeks ago in Duval County.

[DirtyDave]

Habitat Loss is the number 1 reason even though people will deny this and blame ants and hogs all day. Ranchers and Hay Farmers especially treat Native Grasses like weeds...
That combined with Bobwhites being the least resilient of quail species

[BlessedVeteran0305]

Fire ants will clean them out for sure. Never heard about the hogs doing it

[fish4food]

Fire ants will clean them out for sure. Never heard about the hogs doing it

Hogs eat the eggs. Along with every other varmint and snake big enough to swallow them.

[Etxnoodler]

Habitat Loss is the number 1 reason even though people will deny this and blame ants and hogs all day. Ranchers and Hay Farmers especially treat Native Grasses like weeds...
That combined with Bobwhites being the least resilient of quail species

X2

[MASTERS]

Remove the native grasses and the quail will fade away in the sunset. Couple that with no one traps and manages predators effectively anymore. When Gray fox hide was worth $12-$15 and coon hide was worth $15-25 the quail populations flourished.

[Drycreek3189]

Habitat Loss is the number 1 reason even though people will deny this and blame ants and hogs all day. Ranchers and Hay Farmers especially treat Native Grasses like weeds...
That combined with Bobwhites being the least resilient of quail species

This, and every predator is the enemy of ground nesting birds. Turkey and quail suffer from too many coons, possums, feral cats, coyotes, skunks, etc. Used to be quail all over East Texas when I was a kid. Pine trees, behia grass, and coastal bermuda don’t support quail. Truck farming was common with weeds on fencerows and fallow fields. Lots of guys coon hunted and trapped back then, hardly anyone does now.

[PondPopper]

Fire ants will clean them out for sure. Never heard about the hogs doing it

This is the main culprit....
We once had Atwaters Prairie Chickens, Quail, Pheasant and a bunch of rabbits in Brazoria county.. All of that was before the fire ants.. The last quail and Pheasant I've seen in this county was back in the early 80's.. they once were thick. The old timers once told stories about how abundant they were.
All gone now.. Fire ants kill anything and everything that nest on the ground.. Nothing stands a chance.

[68rustbucket]

I’ve heard there’s a few around there in Jackson county. Check the fence rows.

[SwampBuck]

There’s some. But I’ve only seen them in limited numbers and only in certain areas. But they are there.

[Radar]

Around here it is nothing but coastal grass now, and it is not Quail friendly in any way. Predators,loss of habitat and chemicals.

I remember insecticides (DDT) being sprayed when I was a kid, man that crap was deadly. Then the rabbits disappeared, along with quail. We have cottontails again, but they aint no jack rabbits left or quail.

[Top Of Texas]

Habitat Loss is the number 1 reason even though people will deny this and blame ants and hogs all day. Ranchers and Hay Farmers especially treat Native Grasses like weeds...

Yes, it's 100% habitat related. And where habitat is suitable, timely and abundant rainfall is the primary control variable.

Not fire ants - when working for TPWD in 2000, we trapped bobs in Matagorda County from native grassland. I could've hopped across the entire ranch on nothing but fire ant mounds.

Not hogs - rolling plains of TX and south TX has quail and lots of hogs.

Not eye worms - They were first documented in the 1960's, that's nothing new.

Not predators - Remember that quail, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, coons, snakes have all been working it out for thousand years before we showed up. Where habitat is suitable, predators don't limit populations.

Loss of native grasses and weeds is the culprit.

Bobs are remarkably adaptable. They once occurred from TX up into Virginia. Excellent work is being done right now in Georgia. All they require is native grass, weeds, and some form of lightly scattered woody cover, all on a large scale. Then just add rain.

[Strummer]

I have lived in Jackson co all my life . I have only seen quail a handful of times .