27. Doves banded as adults survived at a higher rate 
(P < 0.05) than doves banded as immatures, regardless of 
origination area. 
28. The unweighted average recovery rate for doves 
banded in the CMU was 1.5% for adults and 2.0% for 
immatures. 
29, Doves banded as immatures were recovered at a 
higher rate (P < 0.01) than doves banded as adults. 
30. Doves banded in non-hunting States and the 
West-CMU (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New 
Mexico) had the lowest direct recovery rates (0.6 to 1.2%); 
South Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma had mid-range direct 
recovery rates (1.7 to 2.0%); Missouri, Arkansas, and North 
and South Texas had relatively high rates (2.1 to 4.5%). 
31. Doves banded in States with hunting seasons (south- 
ern States) had a lower survival rate than doves banded in 
States without hunting seasons (northern States). 
32. The amount of production needed to compensate for 
annual mortality to maintain a constant breeding dove 
population in the CMU was 2.2 young per pair of breed- 
ing adults, well below the reported production of 3.3 to 4.4. 
33. Immature doves had higher direct recovery rates and 
were thus more vulnerable to hunter harvest than adults. 
The average relative recovery rate for the CMU was 1.3 
immatures per adult. 
34, The kill rates for adults and immatures were 4.7 and 
6.3% , respectively. Therefore, the estimated proportion of 
total mortality (47.3% for adults and 56.2% for immatures) 
due to hunting was 9.9 and 11.2%, respectively. 
35. It is concluded that hunting has not adversely affected 
the mourning dove population in the CMU. 
36. The average fall flight population of mourning doves 
for the 48 conterminous States was estimated to be between 
350 and 600 million birds. 
Acknowledgments 
The authors of this report comprised the Mourning Dove 
Banding Analysis Subcommittee of the Central Migratory 
Shore and Upland Game Bird Technical Committee. 
Special recognition is given the various members who super- 
vised the banding program and supported the analysis of 
data (Appendix B). Many banders contributed directly to 
the success of the banding effort. Those individuals or agen- 
cies accounting for the banding of more than 100 mourn- 
ing doves during the course of the study are identified in 
Appendix C. Our special thanks go to T. S. Baskett, 
Missouri Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit; W. H. Kiel, 
King Ranch; and J. D. Nichols, Migratory Bird and Habi- 
tat Research Laboratory, for reviewing the entire manu- 
script and making many helpful suggestions for improve- 
ment. D, R. Anderson, Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research 
Unit, provided guidance and consultation on statistical 
methods used for calculating avian survival. H. D. Irby 
kindly provided the attractive pen and ink illustration for 
39 
the cover. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department personnel 
who contributed to various aspects of the analysis were 
J. Barron, A. Green, H. Irby, D. McCarty, and J. Rober- 
son. 
Personnel of the Office of Migratory Bird Management, 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, provided many services for 
which we are grateful. J. P. Rogers, Chief, provided ad- 
ministrative and financial support. M. Smith and R. Pospa- 
hala provided facilities for meetings and were involved in 
early planning for processing of data; D. Coyne also helped 
in initial planning procedures. F. Fiehrer, EDP pro- 
grammer, developed most of the original computer pro- 
grams that were used in tabulations. Programmer R. Shana- 
han developed additional programs, performed the file 
edits, and produced the computer calculations and tabu- 
lations used in the analysis. B. Galowin searched original 
banding files and determined exact locations for a sample 
of Mexican recoveries. 
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