Arizona Dove Wing Survey, 1964

Book excerpt: The first large-scale effort to collect dove wings by mail was made in 1964, in Arizona. Each of 2,356 dove hunters ws sent 10 wing envelopes with instructions for recording data and handling wings. A total of 992 hunters submitted 22,362 wings in 2,349 envelopes that included mourning dove (Zenaidura maroura) and white-winged doves (Zenaida asiatica). The survey yielded information on (1) age ratios of the Arizona dove harvest ; (2) the chronologic and geographic distribution of the kill within the State ; and (3) the feasibility of using a wing survey to obtain reliable age ratios and kill data. The weighted kill for Arizona was 676,974 mourning doves and 182,711 white-winged doves. The young:adult age ratio in the kill of mouning doves was 0.83:1, which was abnormally low. Correction for differential vulnerability by use of banding data raised the ratio to 1.80:1. This low age ratio probably resulted from migration of immatures to little-hunted areas before the September hunting season. The age ratio in the kill of white-winged doves was 1.78:1. Most hunters hunted within their county of residence. Hunter numbers and dove kill related closely to both human and dove populations.