NIGHT-LIGHTING: 



A Technique for Capturing 



Birds and Mamnnals* 



Ronald F. Labiskyt 



Capturing large numbers of wild birds and mammals 

 for the purpose of marking the animals for ecological 

 and behavioral studies is usually a difficult task. This 

 paper describes a technique which was found effective 

 for capturing pheasants {Phasianus colchicus), cover 

 and fig. 1, and certain other animals by using bright 

 lights at night to blind them temporarily. The idea for 

 this technique is not original with the writer nor is it 

 of recent origin. If records existed from prehistoric 

 time, they would probably show that preliterate man 

 used the light shed by burning torches in capturing wild 

 animals for food. 



The capturing of pheasants by night-lighting, also 

 called "jack-lighting" or "shining," has been employed 

 in practical game management since the late 1920's. 

 Oscar Johnson (Leopold 1931:118) reported that workers 

 in South Dakota captured about 10,000 pheasants during 

 the winter of 1926-27, and 12,000 pheasants during the 

 winter of 1929-30, by "shining" roosting birds with auto- 

 mobile headlights. More recently, workers in Idaho (Anon- 

 ymous 1952), South Dakota (Smith 1954), Nebraska 

 (Anonymous 1955), and California (Hart et al. 1956:137) 

 have employed night-lighting in capturing pheasants. 



In Illinois, one of the problems in pheasant research 

 has been that of capturing and marking a large enough 

 number of wild pheasants to permit investigations of 

 behavior, population dynamics, and movements. While 

 bait trapping of wild pheasants is successful in many 

 states, it is difficult, or frequently impossible, in east- 

 central Illinois during fall and winter; this difficulty is 

 probably the result of an abundant year-round food supply 

 and moderate winter weather (Robertson 1958:21). In 

 order to facilitate the pheasant research program in 

 east-central Illinois, a mobile, night-lighting rig was 

 designed and outfitted. The work reported in this paper 

 was conducted on a 23,200-acre study area in Ford and 



*A contribution from Illinois Federal Aid Project No. 30-K, 

 the Illinois Department of Conservation, the United States 

 Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Illinois Nat- 

 ural History Survey, co-operating. 



tAssistanl Wildlife Specialist, Illinois Natural History 

 Survey; at time of study Labisky was employed by the Illinois 

 Department of (Conservation under terms of the Fednral Aid in 

 Wildlife Restoration Act and was assigned to the Illinois 

 Natural History Survey for administrative and technical super- 

 vision. 



McLean counties, near Sibley, during the fall and win- 

 ter of 1956-57, 1957-58, and 19.58-59. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Acknowledgment is made to personnel of the Illinois 

 Natural History Survey and the Illinois Department of 

 Conservation for assistance in the field, especially to 

 Louis F.James, Rexford D. Lord, Jr., Charles B. Mack, 

 and Stuart H. Mann; to Thomas G. Scott, James S. Ayars, 

 Carl 0. Mohr, Ralph E. Yeatter, and Mrs. Frances 

 Robbins, all of the Natural History Survey, for advice 

 concerning presentation of the data; to Mrs. Diana R. 

 Braverman of the Natural History Survey for editing 

 the manuscript; and to Robert 0. Ellis, David B. Cooley, 

 Everette Edwards, Sr., and Glenn G. Poor, Sr., all of 

 the Natural History Survey and Geological Survey ga- 

 rage, for assistance in designing and constructing the 

 night-lighting equipment. The cover photograph and all 

 other photographs were taken by William E. Clark, 

 Natural History Survey photographer. 



EQUIPMENT 



The basic equipment for night-lighting consisted of 

 a 3,000-watt, AC-DC, gasoline generator, which was 

 mounted in the rear of a panel or carrv-all truck, fig. 2, 

 a floodlight cluster, and a hand-held spotlight. A 4- 

 wheel drive vehicle proved to be a desirable kind for 

 night-lighting work. 



The gas line of the generator was connected directly 

 to the main gas line of the truck. The generator was 

 equipped with an electric starting motor powered by a 

 12-volt battery; the battery was placed on the floor 

 next to the generator. 



A series of five 150-watt PAR /FL projector flood 

 lamps, which were held by Killark model SLH lamp- 

 holders and mounted in a Killark model SY wiring trough, 

 comprised the floodlight cluster. The wiring trough was 

 mounted at the apex of a tripod made from three 3-foot 

 lengths of 1-inch metal conduit that were welded to- 

 gether at the top and bolted at the bottom to a metal 

 car-top carrier, fig. 3. The tripod, which extended about 

 3 feet above the cab of the truck when in use, was 

 easilv detachable and could be placed in the rear of 

 the truck when not in use. Only about ,5 minutes were 



