POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS OF 2 LOCAL SOUTH-CAROLINA MOURNING DOVE POPULATIONS

The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) call-count index had a significan t (P < 0.01) negative trend in South Carolina and the Eastern Manageme nt Unit (EMU) during 1988-97. We initiated a banding study in 2 areas in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina to estimate population demograp hic parameters of doves to generate hypotheses that address the purpor ted population declines. During 1992-96, we banded >2,300 doves and ex amined >6,000 individuals during harvest bag checks. An age-specific b and recovery model with time- and area-specific recovery rates, and co nstant survival rates, was chosen for estimation via Akaike's Informat ion Criterion (AIC), likelihood ratio, and goodness-of-fit criteria. A fter-hatching-year (AHY) annual survival rate was 0.359 (SE = 0.056), and hatching-year (HY) annual survival rate was 0.118 (SE = 0.042). Av erage estimated recruitment per adult female into the prehunting seaso n population was 3.40 (SE = 1.25) and 2.32 (SE = 0.46) for the 2 study areas. Our movement data support earlier hypotheses of nonmigratory b reeding and harvested populations in South Carolina. Low survival rate s and estimated population growth rate in the study areas may be repre sentative only of small-scale areas that are heavily managed for dove hunting. Source-sink theory was used to develop a model of region-wide populations that is composed of source areas with positive growth rat es and sink areas of declining growth. We suggest management of mourni ng doves in the Southeast might benefit from improved understanding of local population dynamics, as opposed to regional-scale population de mographics.