Callipepla gambelii (Gambel's Quail)
Credit: Andrej Chudy
about the species
The Gambel's Quail is a desert specialist distributed primarily within the Sonoran desert of the southwest United States and northwest Mexico. Within California, it replaces the closely related California Quail in arid regions in the southeastern part of the state. The two species form a hybrid zone where they meet in the Coachella valley.
why species was selected
Gambel's Quail replace California Quail in the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave deserts in southeastern California. Analyzing patterns of genomic divergence across populations of California and Gambel's Quail provides an opportunity to understand the process of adaptive divergence and speciation in these two iconic California bird species.
Associated Publications:
Phred M Benham, Carla Cicero, Merly Escalona, Eric Beraut, Mohan P A Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Michael W Nachman, Rauri C K Bowie, A highly contiguous genome assembly for the California quail (Callipepla californica), Journal of Heredity, Volume 114, Issue 4, July 2023, Pages 418–427, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad008
Benham, P.M., Cicero, C., Davila, M.M., Enbody, E.D., Miller, K.S., Shultz, A.J., Smith, L.L., Nachman, M.W. and Bowie, R.C.K. (2025), Patterns of Genetic Diversity Within Three California Quail Species Are Best Explained by Climate and Landscape Changes. Mol Ecol, 34: e70093. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70093
