Sea ducks in the Atlantic Flyway: population status and a review of special hunting seasons
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Geology topics
Publications and source records attributed to G.H. Haas.
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No abstract available.
Examination of 8,141 adult mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ) in North and South Carolina revealed that substantial numbers complete primary feather molt in September. Adult mourning doves shed primaries at the rate of 1 per 14 days. No difference was found in this rate between sexes or among years, 1969-74. The initiation of molt differed from year to year, and female molt always preceded male molt. Available data show that southern doves complete primary molt a month earlier than northern doves. Therefore, age based on primary molt can be biased upward if all molt-complete wings from southern hunting samples are considered immature.
Results confirmed pairing as the primary factor influencing perch-cooing rates of wild mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ). Marked unmated males cooed at substantially higher rates (6.2x) than mated males, had greater probability of cooing (2.3x) during 3-minute periods, and continued cooing longer each morning than mated males. Population density was not a major factor affecting cooing. Unmated males cooed more frequently in the presence of other cooing doves (P < 0.05) than when alone, but the number of additional doves above 1 was unimportant. Cooing rates of both mated and unmated males on areas with dissimilar dove densities were not significantly different. Within limits of standard call-count procedure, weather exerted no detectable influence on cooing.
Unretrieved loss for mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in north-central South Carolina was between 27 and 41 percent of the retrieved kill for the 1973 through 1975 hunting seasons based on 1,396 doves shot by 281 hunters. Dove hunters hunted in groups, fired 8.6 shots per retrieved dove, and engaged in a substantial number of illegal activities. Increased dove populations and hunter bag resulted in increased unretrieved loss, numbers of shots per bagged bird, and illegal activities. Retriever dogs increased the efficiency of dove hunters.
This study was undertaken to document the timing of primary feather molt for aging purposes and to examine variability in rate of molt between years and between sexes of immature wild mourning doves ( Zenaida macroura ). We used capture records from a 7-year study on the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of North and South Carolina.