Utah · UplandGambel's quail

Unlike California quail, Gambel's quail is native to Utah, and UDWR's own 2022 Upland Game Management Plan states the species mainly inhabits areas in southwestern Utah, with a second, much smaller population thread along the Colorado River: the species is believed to have occupied riparian habitat along the Colorado River corridor up to Moab prior to the Glen Canyon Dam and a severe winter die-off in 1949, and small remnant populations still occur along some of the Colorado River drainage, likely the result of translocations. Independent hunting-press and conservation sourcing (KSL Outdoors; Red Cliffs Desert Reserve) narrows the core southwestern range to Washington County specifically, brushy washes and foothill drainages around St. George and the Beaver Dam Mountains, with hunters directed to areas with Joshua trees, dry washes, and black brush/desert almond cover, tied closely to the Virgin River riparian corridor. This is a materially different core range from California quail's Wasatch Front/Uinta Basin concentration despite the two species sharing one aggregate bag limit in Utah's regulations.