Córdoba Argentina is widely recognized among wingshooters as
location for the greatest remaining wingshooting on earth.
For good reason. Commonly asked questions include kind of
dove and how their population sustains high-volume
shooting. The following is information information
about Córdoba Argentina's most famous bird, the Eared Dove
(Zenaida auriculata), and the history of the shooting
industry for which Argentina is famous.
The Eared Dove, sometimes referred to as the Golden
eared Dove, is a New World tropical dove. It is a widespread
species in South America that occurs in nearly all types of
ecosystems except tropical rainforest. It is a resident
breeder throughout South America from Colombia to southern
Argentina and Chile, and on the offshore islands from the
Grenadines southwards. Prior to 1950, the Eared Dove was a common,
though not particularly abundant dove throughout its range.
Many migrated in large flocks from the forested Chaco region to
feed on thistle seeds which were abundant in Córdoba Argentina's
native grassland Pampas.
Eared Doves around Córdoba do not migrate, and the enormous
flocks are described as flying constantly between their roosting
woods and the open fields. In the Córdoba region in Argentina the
Eared Doves are known as palomas doradas because of the
shining feathers sometimes present in their plumage.
The Eared Dove is 24 cm long with a long wedge-shaped tail, and
weighs normally about 112 g. Adult males have mainly olive-brown
upperpart plumage, with black spots on the wings. The head has a
grey crown, black line behind the eye, and the blue-black on the
lower ear coverts. These black markings give the species its
English and specific name. The underparts are vinous, and the tail
is tipped with cinnamon. The bill is black and the legs dark
red.
The female is duller than the male, and immatures are
greyish-brown, very dull, with pale barring. The Eared Dove is
common to abundant in savannahs and other open areas, including
cultivation, and it readily adapts to human habitation, being seen
on wires and telephone posts near towns in Trinidad and Venezuela,
almost in all public spaces of large urban areas such as Bogotá,
Colombia and feeding near beach resorts in Tobago.
Its flight is high, fast and direct, with the regular beats and
an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of
pigeons in general. It also has a breeding display with a steep
climb and semi-circular glide down to its original perch. It builds
a small stick nest several meters high in a tree and lays two white
eggs. These hatch in 12-14 days with another 9 days to fledging.
There appears to be no fixed breeding season in most of their
range, and provided with plentiful food and habitat birds will
breed almost continuously.
There are two distinct yearly breeding peaks (Feb-May and
Aug-Nov) with repeated broods in the same location.
Biologists speculate that reproduction is triggered by favorable
environmental conditions, especially adequate availability of
certain food items. It is also suggested that a close relationship
between land-use, food supply, and Eared Dove "outbreaks". The
expansion of agriculture in previously uncultivated savannahs led
to year-round availability of sorghum and other cultivated
crops. In order of importance to Eared doves in Argentina:
millet, wheat, maize, and peanuts.
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Cultivated grain crops dominate the Eared Dove's
diet throughout the year, except for the four months between
December and March, and in July. Spring and early summer
(November-January) coincide with the beginning of rains, a time
when most of the grain crops are sown, and therefore unavailable
for the doves.
It was during the 1950s that grain sorghum was introduced and
Córdoba Argentina's agriculture area planted to sorghum escalated
rapidly, paving the way for Eared Dove population expansion and one
of the greatest sporting spectacles to exist since the demise of
the Passenger Pigeon to which Argentina doves are commonly likened.
As a consequence, agriculture expanded into previously
forested areas, creating a mosaic of croplands and fragments of
original woodlands. Eared dove colonies occupied forest
fragments there that ranged between 100 and 600 ha, the doves
preferring patches with dense secondary thorn-scrub, primarily of
Prosopsis and Acacia.
Rapid and large growth in population numbers was recorded in
Córdoba, Argentina, accompanied by the development of large
breeding and roosting colonies of up to 1-5 million birds.
This initial upsurge was followed by further population eruptions
and colony development in other regions of Argentina, including the
provinces of Entre Ríos, Chaco, and Salta from 1970 to 1990.
Moreover, similar explosions were also recorded in other countries,
notably Uruguay, Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil. In all cases, these
outbreaks happened in areas of developing agriculture. There
are reckoned to be more than 23 million of these doves in the
fields around Córdoba in northern Argentina. Some recent
estimates put the figure ranging 50-60 million Eared Dove - and
growing.
Further north, in Bolivia, around de Gran Chaco region, near the
immense soy and sorghum plantations around Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
the dove shooting is more seasonal, going from May to September
with large flocks arriving from Argentina to raid the grain crops.
Locals attest that Eared Doves, which they call by the Guaraní name
of totaky were quite rare in the region just a couple of
decades ago, a testimony not only to the resilience of the species
but to the huge impact that the newly-created large feeding grounds
have on dove populations.
Eared dove dispersed in daily movements of up to 100 km to
obtain food. All colonies lived near water sources such as rivers
or irrigation channels. Nest density averaged between 1,000 and
2,000 nests/ha, reaching in some cases over 4, 000 nests/ ha in
some patches. Active nests were found in all months of the
year, the colonies being eventually abandoned only for short.
Population increase and colony development did not include,
however, the whole region planted to sorghum. Instead, it was
restricted to a well defined zone of mosaic landscape where food
patches (sorghum cropland) and breeding habitat (patches of
secondary thorn-scrub woodland) were present in obviously suitable
proportions.
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Eared Dove colonies neither developed to the east,
where sorghum was abundant but without intermingled woods, nor to
the west, where woodland was predominant. More specifically,
colonies were confined to forest patches of some 100 ha or more,
located at distances no greater than 100 km from food sources and
less than 10 km from water sources. In the affected areas, the
proportion of land covered with crops was in nearly all cases
higher than 10%. In those cases where total cropland was less
than 10%, the area under grain sorghum reached at least 3%.
The sorghum-planted area and eared dove population continued
to increase in parallel. In 1972-1973, sorghum expansion
peaked at just over 1 million ha, ranging from 6% to 15% of the
landscape in the dove-affected area, where eight colonies were
developing. In subsequent years, soybean became more and more
attractive to farmers and consequently the sorghum-planted area
began a steady decline which continues today. The connection
between eared doves and cultivated grain was eventually made
evident when dove crop contents were analyzed. In the early 1970s,
most of the diet comprised the seeds of cultivated plants,
particularly sorghum, wheat, millet, and secondarily weed
seeds.
The eared dove still remains a major pest of agriculture in
Córdoba, particularly of grain sorghum. Although the birds can
damage standing plants, they prefer to feed on spilled grain in
harvested crops. Due to the inefficiency of mechanical harvesters,
a considerable amount of wasted grain (between 160 and 500 kg/ha in
the case of sorghum) remains in the fields and supports a huge dove
population. Weed seeds are important at certain times of the year,
particularly early spring when cultivated grains are not available.
Grain sorghum has nevertheless proved to be a key factor in
maintaining a substantial level of food availability during a time
of shortage of other food sources, given that its stubble remains
for 5-6 months before being ploughed at the start of the next
spring.
Crop damage caused by the doves reaches significant proportions.
It previously led to the implementation of massive killing
campaigns using poisoned baits and other lethal methods, without
achieving any significant reduction in population levels.
Following reports of severe damage, Argentinean authorities
implemented massive control campaigns during the 1960s and1970s,
using poisoned baits distributed around the roosts. Although
millions of doves were killed, there was neither a noticeable
reduction in overall population level, nor in colony numbers.
Likewise, Brazilian farmers in the 1980's increasingly reported
damage to crops, mostly to emerging soybean seedlings.
Problems also occurred in rice and wheat plantations,
particularly due to the impact of large flocks landing on the crops
shortly before and during harvest time. Control measures caused
heated debates, given that Brazilian wildlife protection laws do
not permit killing of doves. A massive official management
program based on collecting eggs and nestlings was conducted
between January 1993 and August 1994. It proved not only
prohibitively expensive, but entirely futile.
They are prolific and a big detriment to the Argentine crops. It
is estimated that Eared Dove can decimate 30 to 40 percent of the
grain crop in Argentina. It is not considered a game bird in
Argentina as is the Mourning Dove is in the U.S. In the U.S.,
dove hunting is a sporting tradition, but in Argentina, hunting is
a way of controlling the dove population. But Córdoba
Argentina also recognizes the commodity value of its Eared Dove,
too. Sport hunting for Eared Dove is economically viable
because non-resident hunting guests inject money into the local
economy.
Hunting Eared
Doves provide the last true big-bag shooting experience in the
world. It is common for a single hunter to shoot 1000 birds in a
day. It's a personal thing. While many hunters choose
to shoot fewer, some shoot far more. World records continue
to climb upwards. On January 30, 2010 Dr. Todd White start the
day's Argentina dove hunt at Sierra Brava with 4 Beretta 20-gauge
autoloaders. After 14 hours of shooting, after 14, 250 shells
(or a shotgun shell fired about every 4 seconds), after seven 20
gauge Beretta shotguns used and after about 5,000 shotgun exchanges
between Dr. White and his bird boy, a new world-record 11,301 doves
had been amassed. It is a lifetime achievement for which we
congratulate Dr. White.
The scale of this wing-shooting recalls the numbers of Passenger
Pigeons taken by North American gunners in the 1800s.
It's entirely an instance of perfectly existing
habitat. As with the Passenger Pigeons, Eared Dove
populations in Argentina continue to "darken the skies".
Populations on the sporting estates of Argentina are holding
their own, with the birds breeding four times a year and thriving
on the vast areas of grain, some grown for their benefit, most of
it on commercial farms which are happy to support the dove
shooting. Sunflowers are cultivated exclusively for Eared
Dove.
David Denies was the first outfitter in Córdoba over 20 years
ago. He virtually pioneered high volume dove shooting in the
region, putting his flag into the ground and declaring the area the
Dove Shooting Capital of the World. It was 1982, and his old
friend Gene knew what he was talking about when he said, "I'll tell
you David, I've shots many times in Mexico and Colombia and I've
never seen as many birds."
The greatest dove hunt in the world back in those days was in
the Cauca Valley of Colombia. It was famous because it was
possible to visit that region and shoot a whole case of
shells. A case of 500 shells. Things have
changed.
David and Gene had been touring Argentina for two weeks. Gene
and his wife Nancy wanted to see Argentina's many wonders, and they
roamed through its vast regions like gypsies. They bought gas by
the jug and lambs on the hoof. They admired the incredible
colors of the Salta Mountains, and worked their way high into
Tucuman through the only subtropical jungle in Argentina, and
finally wound through some tough dirt tracks in the sierras of
Córdoba.
They didn't start to see big flocks of doves until driving through
the tiny town of Villa del Dique. Six miles later they stopped to
view the spectacle from a high spot on the highway. Though it is
difficult to believe, looking through binoculars there were huge
flocks flying from the grain filled plains into the wild hills of
southern Córdoba for as far as they could see. Doves were
flying across the hardtop, from south to north in lines and flocks
and huge, high groups. Looking west and then east, David
began to grasp the immensity of this movement of birds. The
dove flyway was at least 5 miles wide. It had to be
a major migrational timing they surmised.
Minutes later,
after turning the truck into a dirt road in an isolated valley,
they loaded two shotguns began plucking birds from the sky-but in
no time were totally out of shells. As they picked up doves,
the bird crops were full of corn. They soon realized this was
no migration. These birds were feeding and going back to the roost.
This happened in Córdoba every day.
Returning in October that same year and seeing the same staggering
amount of birds, he recognized an opportunity. In March 1986,
Mr. Denies and led the first hunting party of Americans into the
area-likely the first foreigners to shoot dove in
Argentina.
Looking back now, he still marvels at the fact that a casual
sightseeing tour lead to what today is a multimillion
dollar business spawned by an amazing renewable resource. Dove
shooting today provides jobs for many of Argentina citizens,
benefits the region and the region's poor, and provides world-class
sport to the hunting guests that visit from countries around the
globe.
A favorable combination of factors appears to have been crucial
in increasing substantially the system's carrying capacity for
doves in Argentina. Large-scale food availability almost
year-round results from changes in local agricultural practices,
with increased areas devoted to annual crops, much waste left in
the fields, and two yearly harvests. Forest cover
remains plentiful.
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For the best, look no further than shooting in the
hills north of the city of Córdoba in an area known as the Golden
Triangle. Córdoba's historic Macha region is the
best and most productive dove hunting area in Argentina since the
very beginning. The 3 largest dove roosts in Córdoba exist
there. This area is the dove shooters proverbial Paradise because
it consistently produces high volume dove shooting, as well as
consistently varied shooting that will not be encountered anywhere
else in Argentina. The shooting in the hills north of
Córdoba is unequalled wingshooting. Many lesser operations
exist 120 km east of Córdoba City in what is known as
Arroyito, but these operations are inferior in regards to
bird number, quality hunting and services.
Scientific research pertaining to Argentina's dove populations
predict that further expansion of grain-crop agriculture in
originally wooded areas will favor a marked increase in eared dove
populations, providing that enough breeding habitat remains
available. Many potential situations of this kind are
widespread in Latin America, where agricultural frontiers are still
expanding, but Córdoba Argentina will forever remain dove shooting
capital of the world.
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