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DOES THE PRESENT MANAGEMENT OF THE 
MOURNING DOVE ENDANGER ITS SURVIVAL? 
By Henry M. WesBeEr, M.D., U.S. Navy, Ret. 
“MANAGEMENT OF WILDLIFE resources is nothing more than applying the 
same principles of animal husbandry to game resources that a successful 
rancher applies,’ writes Mi. J. R. Beers,, Game Manager for the California 
Department of Fish & Game. While some of the modern game management 
techniques, such as the shooting of does and fawns, may be “scientific” as 
a game technique, they have met with considerable public resistance. How- 
ever, to date, game manageis have not recommended the shooting of does- 
with-young o1 pheasants while nesting. This dubious “distinction” is re- 
served for the mourning dove, considered by game manageis a gamebird, 
but not quite worthy of the simple ministrations parceled out to every other 
bird and animal which we seek to perpetuate. Studies of the nesting habits 
of doves* * *° by biologists across the land have shown conclusively that up 
to 838% of doves are nesting when the shooting begins. 
The first injurious result from present game management concerns the 
widespread dispersal of flocks by an increasing army of gunners and the 
second relates to the increase in the occurrence of a fatal disease known 
as Trichomoniasis. 
Let us first consider “migratory flocking” by quoting the words of Dr. 
Leonard Stejneger’: “It seems to be a fact that when a migratory species 
has reached a certain low number of individuals, the rapidity with which 
it goes toward extinction is considerably increased. Two circumstances may 
tend toward this result. We know that when birds on their migrations get 
astray, having lost their route and comrades, they are nearly always 
doomed to destruction, that fate not only overtaking single individuals, 
but also large flocks to the last member. If the safety of the wanderers, 
therefore, greatly depends upon their keeping their correct route, the 
safety decreases disproportionately the scarcer the species become, since 
if the route is poorly frequented, the younger and inexperienced travelers 
have less chance of following the right track, and more chance of getting 
lost, and consequently destroyed. The fewer the individuals, the more dis- 
connected become the breeding localities, the more difficult for the birds to 
find each other and form flocks in the fall... birds used to migrating in 
flocks do not like to or cannot travel alone... .” 
The large number of dove shooters in an increasing number of areas 
Where doves flock means that flock dispersal may be a serious matter. Un- 
like waterfowl feeding areas which are often relatively inaccessible, places 
where doves feed are open ground. 
The most serious danger facing the species, however, is that of Tricho- 
moniasis. Since 1934 it has been noted in most sections of the United States 
and reached epizootic’ proportions in some areas. To those with an under- 
standing of biology and the related sciences there is documented evidence 
sufficient to produce a most convincing and logical explanation for the in- 
creasing number of cases and for the “increasing virulence of the or- 
