How do fire ants affect quail and other wildlife?
You might have seen pictures of massed fire ants killing hatchling quail chicks or stinging the noses and eyes of newborn deer. Without question RIFA can kill young birds, small mammals, and reptiles. However, in the case of quail, it could be that a more important impact on populations is the removal of insect food that would normally be available to quail chicks. Because quail populations fluctuate widely due to climatic changes, it is hard to pinpoint the extent to which RIFA might trigger populatioin-wide collapse. Certainly if climatic conditions are unfavorable, the depredations by fire ants could become a major factor in affecting the survival of certain species of wildlife.
