DETECTABILITY OF RADIO COLLARED COVEYS BY FIELD TRIAL COMPETITORS ON AMES PLANTATION, DECEMBER 1998, JANUARY 1999, AND FEBRUARY 1999
Rachel Chambers, Research
Associate, Ames Plantation
(As published in the November-December 1999 issue of Quail
Unlimited Magazine, pages 60-61)
Introduction
Field trial enthusiasts who follow their dogs afield can be
compared with fishermen who cast their lines into the depths.
Sedge-covered fields conceal the quail as effectively as water,
and neither sportsman can rely on human senses alone to
determine where the game is located. Rather, they both must rely
on outside agents to produce results: for one it is a baited
hook, for the other, natural game bird scents and a dog’s
powerful sensory capabilities.
How effective can all-age bird dogs be under the grueling
standards of field trial competition? To examine this question,
coveys of quail containing radio collared wild birds were
monitored during the National Amateur Invitational Championship,
the Ames Amateur All-Age, Hobart Ames Memorial Open All-Age, and
the National Championship field trials, all run on the Ames
Plantation northwest of Grand Junction, Tennessee, to determine
if they were detected (i.e., pointed) by the dogs during the
competition.
The variable used to assess the effectiveness of the dogs in
pointing the radio collared coveys was "detectability,"
expressed as a percentage and defined as:
Average number of productive radio collared finds (the birds were pointed) per day divided by the total number of radio collared coveys available to the dogs (i.e., within 400 meters of the centerline of the course) multiplied by 100.
Detectability was determined separately for the morning and afternoon courses.