This data package was submitted to a staging environment for testing purposes only. Use of these data for anything other than testing is strongly discouraged.

Data Package Summary    View Full Metadata

  • Morphological and nutritional characteristics of Gambel's Quail, Callipepla gambelii, in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona (July-September 2015)
  • Funk, Alexander; Arizona State University
    Sweazea, Karen; Arizona State University
  • 2020-05-22
  • Funk, A. and K. Sweazea. 2020. Morphological and nutritional characteristics of Gambel's Quail, Callipepla gambelii, in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona (July-September 2015) ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/DOI_PLACE_HOLDER (Accessed 2024-12-27).
  • Gambel’s Quail, Callipepla gambelii, are gregarious birds commonly found in the southwestern deserts of the United States and Northwestern Mexico. With expanding urbanization, these birds are often found in exurban and suburban areas where they have access to food sources that may differ from those used by birds living in rural-urban fringes. To investigate this question, we compared the morphology and nutritional physiology of quail sampled at sites varying with respect to land use and cover. We hypothesized that quail living in urbanized areas have access to a greater variety of food sources and to more stable food resources, and so are in better body condition, than quail residing in less urbanized areas. We sampled birds at locations in the Phoenix, Arizona (USA) area, that vary with respect to land use and cover types. Birds were weighed and we measured their body length and chest circumference. A blood sample was collected from the jugular vein of each individual for analysis of plasma glucose, total proteins, triglycerides, and free glycerol using commercially available kits. Consistent with our hypothesis, birds living in more urbanized environments were longer, and they had larger chest circumferences and greater circulating triglyceride concentrations than birds living in less developed areas, suggesting greater access to lipid-rich foods. In addition, the abundance of grass at the sampling sites was associated positively with plasma protein concentrations but negatively with plasma free glycerol levels. Areas with more grass may provide birds with less dietary fats than the diet of urban birds, resulting in the breakdown of triglycerides into free glycerol. These findings are the first to demonstrate an association between urbanization and the morphology and nutritional physiology of Gambel’s Quail.

  • N: 33.6295      S: 33.5172      E: -112.3932      W: -112.4614
  • knb-lter-cap.683.1  (Uploaded 2020-05-22)  
  • This data package is released to the "public domain" under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 "No Rights Reserved" (see: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) has an ethical obligation to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or coauthorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is". The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.
  • DOI PLACE HOLDER
  • Analyze this data package using:           

EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:

UNM logo UW-M logo