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The NEW Surrogator™ unit will allow you to establish a huntable population of quail imprinted on your property.
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Wildlife Management Technologies

Surrogate Propagation

Surrogate Propagation is a technique used to instill a home range in birds, by rearing them in a specific location, at an age that they are most receptive to imprinting.

QRT's research studies show that quail raised in captivity experience a gradual diminishing of their survival instincts during the 7th to 9th week of life. Quail released at these ages are incapable of surviving in the wild because their survival instincts have atrophied from lack of use. You've heard the saying, "Use it or lose it..." If quail don't use it, by the age of 7 weeks they start to lose it.

If native quail chicks survive past 5 weeks of age, their survivability multiplies dramatically. Studies show that most native birds are lost in the first 3 weeks of life. If a chick lives to the age of 5 weeks he is no longer susceptible to nest and chick predators. Studies show that the vast majority of quail losses occur in the nest up until about 3 weeks of age. The Surrogator functions as a surrogate parent for the first 5 weeks of life. The Surrogator™ is a low maintenance source of warmth, food, water and protection while maintaining the birds’ natural, wild instincts and imprinting them to an area in which they will remain.

All birds have a homing instinct. Although there is some disagreement as to how a bird tracks home, whether it is through their olfactory sense or some awareness of the electromagnetic field, studies have shown that time and time again birds use their homing instinct to return "home." Wildlife Specialists have re-established ducks and geese on certain bodies of water by clipping the wings of a male and female, allowing them to reproduce in a specific location, thus imprinting their offspring. By utilizing a birds natural homing instinct, chicks are raised in the unit until 5 weeks of age, imprinting them to a specific location. They are then released at the optimal time of year. As a result, they are imprinted to the location where they were raised from the first few days of life. As a general rule, birds tend to stay within 40 acres of their release area. They will instinctively, because they have been imprinted, stay "home" to reproduce.

Habitat and predator management work in tandem to increase survivability of the surrogated adults and the second generation of chicks. It is critical that the imprinting process begin in the first week of life. By providing ideal, suitable, constantly improving habitat, birds have no need to wander away from "home."

Surrogate Propagation imprints quail, concentrating them in one area, and makes sure that they stay. It offers protection for the first 5 weeks of life, their most vulnerable time. Surrogate Propagation solves the problems bobwhites are facing today.

For a more extensive discussion on Surrogate Propagation, how it was developed and the results of QRT's research, read the Surrogate Propagation Article.