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Posted by Larry Manfredi on 17:58:46 09/30/14
In Reply to: Re: Key West Quail Dove-why not re-introduce? posted by chet blazak
I would not say they are "not" common in the Bahamas, but uncommon to rare! Of course it depends on what island you are on. There are very few on Grand Bahama, more on the Abacos. Andro's has a decent population which is where "our" birds most likely originate from. Amazingly New Providence still has them despite having most of the " human" population of the Bahamas present. There were probably many more birds present many years ago but not today. Cuba has quite a large population as well as many other West Indies Islands which are much father from South Florida.
Perhaps they bred in Key West at one time long ago, that will never happen again as there is not enough suitable habitat. You would think that Key Largo with all of the wonderful hardwood hammock that has been saved from development, that the birds could live and breed here without any problems. But unlike the Bahamas, South Florida has as native species, that the Bahamas don't have, Gray Squirrels and Raccoons. Both of these would prey on the eggs and young of Key West Quail-Dove that on a natural level, won't happen in their native range. There are "introduced" Raccoons in the Bahamas that should be eradicated, not as many as South Florida but they are present and probably impact many native species.
So, in short, it probably would not be a good thing to introduce a bird that may not be able to deal with predators which the Bahamas don't have. You can also add the "feral cats" into the predators as well.
Larry Manfredi
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