woodsman04":vww94j4o said:
Quail and turkeys are very similar, but the big advantage that a turkey has over quail is that once it gets through its first summer and into fall, it's big enough, fast enough, and strong enough to evade many predators.
Quail are perfect eating size for all predators their entire life.
I
USED to think that myself, but have recently changed my mind a bit.
More recently (past few years) have witnessed an "evolution" of some of the more apex predators specifically targeting turkeys, yet these particular predators would appear to have less, little or no interest in something as small as a bobwhite quail.
This is in part due to quail populations being so sparse that maybe certain predators like coyotes and bobcats now have little opportunity to specifically focus their hunting on adult quail (as they once did).
But adult turkeys have some new predatory problems:
Both increases in predators that hunt turkeys,
and evolutionary changes in both how and what these predators focus their hunting.
More and more, I see coyotes and bobcats out "hunting" during mid-day,
and this seems always focused on places they would expect to ambush a turkey.
Most other prey they hunt are more easily hunted nocturnally.
Then, there is the increase and evolution of bald eagles.
They have been learning to target and hunt turkeys,
while they'll likely never have interest in smaller birds such as quail.
Duck hunters were the first to witness part of this eagle revolution.
I'm just telling you it also involves turkeys.
:shock:
