Coyote TV - High Desert Advocate

New Aliens: Prolific, Aggressive, Delicious

Written by The High Desert Advocate

Friday, 30 July 2010

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There are new illegal aliens in eastern Nevada but don’t expect them to be rounded up by ICE agents.
   The Eurasian Collard Dove already the conqueror of Utah has added Nevada to its list of captured territory in its conquest of North America.
   The birds as their name implies are native to southeastern Europe, the Middle East and north Africa.
   The Eurasian dove’s expansion is an incredible story. Before the 1930’s the birds were mostly found in temperate regions from southeastern Europe to Japan, India and the Middle East. By the early 1950’s, they began to show in Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and then Iceland, Russia and above the Arctic Circle in Norway. In North America they range from as far south as Veracruz, Mexico, to as far north as British Columbia, Canada.
   Research shows the birds were inadvertently released in the Bahamas in the 1970’s. An estimated 50 of those doves escaped during an aviary break-in. That population grew to an estimated 10,000 in 10 years, and then the doves began to spread to other islands and eventually to Florida by the mid-1980’s.
   Before long, they showed up in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas.
   In the late 1990’s they arrived in eastern Utah and by the early 2000’s had established strong population in central Utah with a presence in western Utah.
   They crossed the Salt Flats in 2009 and formed a toehold in Wendover and eastern Nevada.
   By this year that toe hold grew from just a few birds to hundreds if not thousands of breeding pairs in the high desert, and they have become a permanent part of the local fauna.
   Unlike most other birds in the pigeon family Eurasian doves do not migrate and unlike most wild animals they are extremely tolerant of humans.

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Those two behaviors have allowed the new arrivals to exploit habitats their cousins the native mourning doves and the also introduced rock pigeons cannot. As year round inhabitants Eurasian doves take advantage of the feast humans provide either intentionally via bird feeders or unintentionally by maintaining seed bearing plants and grasses through the year.
By not migrating south for the winter young doves can exploit new territory while their avian cousins are in sunnier climes. And by the time those relatives return home the returnees often find their homes already occupied by the new comers.
So rapid and overwhelming has the doves advance been that many wildlife agencies have not yet formulated plans to deal with invasion and coordination between state agency to state agency has been minimal.

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Utah for example has declared all out war on the birds and established a 365 day now limit hunting season on the doves. In Nevada while killing the bird is allowed, prospective hunters must first receive an eradication permit.

    The doves predilection to live in city and towns may render any hope of eradicating them null and void since it is illegal in most municipalities to discharge firearms within city limits and poison is highly regulated.
    The immigrants similarity to the native mourning dove may also dissuade hunters from shooting the birds out of season.
    The Mourning Dove is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds. It is also the leading game bird, with up to 70 million birds shot annually in the U.S., both for sport and for meat. Its ability to sustain such pressure stems from its prolific breeding: in warm areas, one pair may raise up to six broods a year.
    Little is also known on the Eurasian doves impact on the native species and other birds.
    But by being year round inhabitants they themselves may increase the number of eagles, hawks, bobcats and other predators by being a movable feast.
    According to several web sites the new immigrants are delicious and various recipes abound from stewing full grown birds to roasted squab.

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