THE EFFECTS OF HUNTING EFFORT AND WEATHER ON HUNTING SUCCESS AND POPULATION-DYNAMICS OF NAMAQUA SANDGROUSE

There is an embryonic commercial hunting industry based on Namaqua san dgrouse Pterocles namaqua in the northern Cape Province, South Africa. Although this embryonic industry supplements agriculture in this semi -arid and desertification prone environment, the full value of this re source is underestimated and the resource itself is underutilized. Thi s study investigates the influence of weather on the time of arrival a nd the number of Namaqua sandgrouse at watering sites, the relationshi ps between hunting effort, hunter efficiency and hunter satisfaction, and the impact of hunting at watering sites. There is a 9% drop in san dgrouse numbers and a six minute delay in arrival time at the watering site with every 25% increase in cloud cover. Hunter group size was no t significantly correlated with hunter satisfaction. However, hunter e fficiency was significantly negatively correlated and hunter satisfact ion was significantly positively correlated with the number of birds c ounted during the hunt. Therefore, mean bag per hunter can be used as a reliable estimate of population size. The mean offtake per watering site per season was significantly positively correlated with the numbe r of hunts at the watering site. We recommend that hunter group size s hould be at least 16, but that, given the apparently low reproductive levels of Namaqua sandgrouse, the number of hunts at a particular wate ring site in a season should preferably be limited to one hunt.