370 The Ruffed Grouse 



It means that some system of checking in the hunters must be 

 maintained and records kept of their bag. It may be that the hunt- 

 ing time or the take of each ehgible hunter will have to be appor- 

 tioned. In any case, the take will have to be kept to the desired 

 limit by stopping the hunting entirely when the full number of 

 birds has been taken. 



If, with the approval of all these administrative problems and the 

 expenses they entail, we still find it worth while to insure a limited 

 grouse kill on an area, what take should be allowed? For a normally 

 good hunting season population of about a grouse per eight acres 

 or thereabouts, a take of twenty-five per cent is warranted. In years 

 of high populations when densities of a bird per four acres or better 

 are attained, the kill may safely be allowed to reach forty or even 

 fifty per cent. In seasons of low populations the kill should be kept 

 well below the twenty-five per cent figure, and if the density is lower 

 than a grouse per thirty acres, no hunting at all is warranted. 



Predator Control. In our analysis of experimental work aimed at 

 an appraisal of the possibilities of increasing grouse by controlling 

 predators, the conclusion was that it not only doesn't pay; it doesn't 

 even work. This is true of various methods that have actually been 

 applied, especially bounty payments. When we add to this the very 

 serious questions concerning the unfavorable effects of predator 

 destruction on the rodent balance, the prospects for improving 

 grouse conditions through this medium are thoroughly discourag- 

 ing. And this in the face of the very important part that predators 

 play in decimating grouse. Even stripping our minds of all senti- 

 ment for the persecuted predators, we cannot honestly recommend 

 any systematic destruction of predators in the interest of the grouse. 

 This is especially true as regards the predatory birds, accurate con- 

 trol of which by species is itself impossible and indiscriminate kill- 

 ing very unwise. 



The mammalian predators that have valuable furs not only can, 

 but should be, controlled (i.e., harvested) without regard to their 

 relations to grouse. Foxes, skunks, weasels, and raccoons are among 

 those grouse predators whose taking by trapping should be consid- 

 ered as a part of the wild-life harvest. Here, as with game, the take 

 should be confined to the annual increment in order that the stock 

 may not be endangered. 



