Mortality Factors 



The most important factors in mortality of King Kails are (1) 

 striking (or being struck by) manmade objects and (2) predation. 

 In recent years, pesticides may also have become an important factor. 

 From time to time, hurricane-caused floods decimate coastal marsh 

 populations. 



MANMADE OBJECTS 



Since King Kails are nocturnal migrants, they strike various illu- 

 minated objects such as television towers, ceilometers, tall buildings, 

 and lighthouses. On their breeding grounds in the southern rice belt, 

 I have found dead King Kails under telephone lines and impaled on 

 barbed wire fences. 



The automobile is an increasing hazard because of the network of 

 roads in the intensively cultivated rice country and the marshland 

 of the South Central States. Over a 3-month period (March 1-June 1, 

 1952), I found 24 dead adult King Kails along a 10-mile stretch of 

 paved road leading north from Stuttgart, Ark. 



During floods in the gulf coast marsh country of Louisiana, King 

 Kails and other water birds are literally flushed out of the marshes 

 to the nearest high ground, which is often a well-traveled highway. 

 During one period of high water in the marsh bordering the highway 

 between the Intracoastal Canal and Creole, La., I saw 30 King Kails 

 (mostly adults with broods) walking back and forth across the road 

 in the face of heavy traffic. Many were being killed, particularly the 

 young. 



Wherever muskrats are trapped, King, Virginia, and Sora Kails 

 become casualties since they use the runways where the traps are 

 placed. Whenever I have encountered muskrat trappers in the course of 

 my travels from New Jersey to Louisiana, I either have seen King 

 Kails removed from traps or have been told of the many that are 

 caught incidental to muskrat trapping. One trapper encountered in 

 Maryland caught 50 King Kails during the course of a single trapping 

 season (2% months). 



PREDATION 



Judging from the many examples of predation in the literature, 

 the King Kail appears to have a wide variety of natural enemies. Fur 

 bearers are probably the most important, chiefly the raccoon, because 

 of its fondness for eggs, and its abundance in most marsh habitats. 



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