Neutral effects of low‐intensity dog training on northern bobwhite vital rates

Le résumé fourni par la source

Indirect effects of hunting can lead to changes in population dynamics, which can be caused by trait‐mediated effects such as, but not limited to, changes in behavior, reproduction, and physiological responses. Our understanding of the effects of activities associated with hunting such as dog training may incur trait‐mediated effects, and ultimately indirect effects to wildlife populations are underrepresented. We conducted a two‐year study on a relatively high‐density wild bobwhite population to identify potential impacts of disturbance caused by the most common levels of spring dog training on bobwhite survival and reproduction. About 34% of coveys across all training events were not available to be encountered. Those remaining for possible encounters were typically encountered once (39%) or not at all (32.5%), whereas 14.6% and 12.8% were encountered twice or three times, respectively. We found no effect of the categorical effects of treatment or encounters on adult or nest survival, clutch size, hatchability, or nest propensity. Additionally, we found no effect of treatment or encounters on fecundity for both years and for both treatments. The neutral results of our study are likely attributed to intentionally low encounter rates. Future studies should focus on scenarios where disturbances are more frequent, and food resources are likely more limited.

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