![]() ![]() But from here on, this small brood-along with other bobwhites roaming the refuge-is on its own. The team will track the birds via the dad’s radio collar and with visual counts, monitoring from a distance. Johnson retrieves the box, and the humans leave. Within minutes the Northern Bobwhite has herded his wards under the canopy of twisted branches and fern-like foliage. The foster dad in the wash jumps right into his role. And they steer them under dense scrub for protection from predators like coyotes and the boiling midday sun. (While the chicks don’t know the difference, Northern males have a white throat and eyebrow, whereas Masked males have a mostly black head.) These surrogate dads teach naive youngsters how to find grasshoppers, beetles, and other food sources. These supplemental resources might make the difference between life and death for the birds in the wild-especially amid increasingly scant rainfall and record triple-digit temperatures.īiologists also give the chicks a leg up by releasing them with a foster parent-often a wild Northern Bobwhite, a close relative of the Masked Bobwhite. The release sites, for instance, are carefully chosen, says FWS quail biologist Rebecca Chester: “We try to put them in some of the best cover and in the best shade so that once they kind of get their wits about them over the first day or two, they can start to venture out from there.” The team also sets up water containers and feeders and scatters milo and millet seeds beneath shrubs and low trees. Still, the team does everything it can to increase the birds’ odds of survival. “It told us that at some level these birds have what it takes.” Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who leads the recovery team. It’s a huge milestone, says Lacrecia Johnson, the U.S. An early-2020 count put the Buenos Aires population, the world’s only known wild Masked Bobwhites, at about 200 individuals. A fraction have survived, and, to the delight of federal biologists, some of the survivors have reproduced. Since 2018 the recovery team has released some 1,800 chicks on the refuge, including about 700 let loose last year. In 1985 the government set aside more than 100,000 acres of flat plains, rolling grassland hills, and oak-lined canyons specifically to conserve the gregarious quail. The chick release today is a key part of a revamped program that aims to reestablish a wild population in southern Arizona, at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. The critically endangered bird, native to southern Arizona and northern Mexico, is the focus of a decades-long recovery effort that, after many fits and starts, is finally showing signs of promise. These birds, taking their first, tentative steps in their new home, are Masked Bobwhites-quail once thought extinct that are now poised to reclaim this patch of their historical range after a century-long absence. Soon about a dozen tiny, speckled chicks bumble and wobble out into the clearing. Then they quietly make their way over to a small group of people on the edge of the wash and stand like silent sentinels, not wanting to frighten the rare creatures inside. They set it down in an arid wash thick with mesquite trees and slide open a door on one side. Between them they carry a wooden box punctuated with round breathing holes. Not all of our inventory is sold online due to vendor restrictions.The sun scorches a stretch of Arizona desert as two women stride through clumps of golden grass, dodging prickly pear cacti on a late morning in September. Please note that delivery dates will vary based on your location. Or a FREE pick up in store option for local customers.Īfter your order has shipped, you will receive a tracking number to keep an eye out for your packages. We offer a $8 Flat Rate shipping option and ship via UPS and USPS. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item. If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. Please contact us directly with any questions or concerns. All Monkee’s boutiques are independently owned and operated, so we can only accept returns on purchases from this store location.Īs a small business, we can not accommodate every return but we will be reasonable. All jewelry, handbags, sunglasses and lingerie are final sale. Customers are responsible for the cost of shipping on all returns unless otherwise indicated as a promotion. Tags must be attached and the item unworn to receive any credit. We want you to LOVE your purchase! Should you need to return or exchange, please put your item(s) back in the mail within 10 days to receive the full credit on your credit card. ![]()
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