Nov. 1, 2017
Randy Zellers Assistant Chief of Communications
The call of the northern bobwhite once echoed through valleys and fields throughout The Natural State, but so many people today who have grown up within the confines of urban areas have never had the opportunity to hear a quail call first-hand. Now, every Arkansan can keep a quail in their pocket, thanks to a new ringtone developed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
The ringtone was the idea of AGFC Director Jeff Crow, who recently announced his resignation. The thought came while he was working in his field near his home days after an update about Arkansas’s quail population and heard a bobwhite calling.
“It just struck me that their call is something those of us who spend a lot of time in the outdoors really appreciate, but few people who don’t spend time in quail habitat have really heard for themselves,” Crow said. “People only rally behind something they love, and if you’ve never even heard a quail, you can’t really appreciate what we are trying to bring back.”
The ringtone was developed from the call of a true Arkansas northern bobwhite in the wild, not too far from the Ouachita Mountains. The tone and instructions to download it to your iPhone are available at https://www.agfc.com/en/hunting/small-game/quail/arkansas-bobwhite-quail-resources.