198 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



Pietsch reported upon the early history of 

 the deer in Illinois, recent populations, 

 and manafiement. Huntinji was suggested 

 as a means of control, and the deer sea- 

 son, after being closed for 56 years, was 

 opened in 1957 for hunting with bows 

 and shotguns. 



Miscellaneous Contributions to 

 Mammalogy.— Mohr (1943/a 1Q47^/) 

 appraised population data for small mam- 

 mals in North America. He calculated 

 the weight of specific populations within 

 the area occupied and concluded that 

 population densities within groups of 

 mammals having similar feeding habits 

 were limited by the size of the mammal 

 concerned. Also. Mohr (1947^) recorded 

 miscellaneous data on populations of cer- 

 tain mammals in Illinois for future refer- 

 ence. 



On December 1, 1956, a grant-in-aid 

 was made by the National Institutes of 

 Health of the U. S. Public Health Serv- 

 ice to initiate a 3-year study of epizootiol- 

 ogy of rabies in wild mammals. This in- 

 vestigation is aimed at identification of 

 the key hosts to rabies in Illinois and 

 those factors that make them key hosts. 



WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 



"Applied programs in the field of bio- 

 logical science are seldom, if ever, de- 

 veloped without the aid of years of pa- 

 tient, so-called unapplied, researches" 

 (Prison ]9-i2b:5). Prison believed that 

 sufficient basic knowledge had been ac- 

 cumulated to support applied manage- 

 ment programs of an exploratory nature, 

 and, with characteristic vigor, he encour- 

 aged work of this kind in the late 1930's. 

 Later, he insisted that these programs be 

 evaluated for monetary return, wildlife 

 \ ield, and other benefits. 



Two of these early programs concernec.! 

 management of upland wildlife in central 

 and northern Illinois. One of the first 

 attempts to develop wildlife habitat on 

 intensively cultivated land took place on 

 the Urbana Township Wildlife Area, 

 which was believed "typical of the best 

 Illinois cornbelt farmland" ( Hessel- 

 schwerdt 1942:31). Habitat develop- 

 ment was begun on this area in 1^37, 

 and in 1939 the project came under the 

 Federal Aid program. Development fea- 



tures included fencerow plantings, instal- 

 lation of den boxes, block planting, and 

 protection of strips along drainage ditches. 

 Usage of the den boxes was evaluated. 

 Pox squirrels appeared to extend their 

 range and to increase in numbers as a 

 result of the provision of den boxes 

 (Hesselschwerdt 1942:33-4. 36). Usable 

 den boxes are no longer present on the 

 area, and resident fox squirrels are un- 

 common. As the fencerow plantings ma- 

 tured, cottontail rabbits and songbirds in- 

 creased in numbers (Wandell 1948:262- 

 3), but populations of pheasants and quail 

 have shown no appreciable increase. 

 Minks and muskrats trapped along an un- 

 grazed section of a drainage ditch in 

 1944 — 1-5 provided an estimated per-acre 

 income of $62.78, more than 10 times 

 that produced by the same ditch where it 

 was heavily grazed (Yeager 1945:85). 



On October 1, 1939, a Pederal Aid 

 project to determine the availability of 

 land for wildlife habitat on the inten- 

 sively cultivated farm land of the Illinois 

 dark prairie was initiated (Spooner & 

 Yeager 1942). Land for refuges and 

 cover development was found to be avail- I 

 able, without purchase, in small scat- • 

 tered tracts, and obtainable through long- 

 term easements. Spooner & Yeager ( 1942: 

 54) concluded that "Although the proj- 

 ect shows promise of wide application on 

 the Illinois prairie, there are yet many 

 problems which must be further an- 

 alyzed before its entire success is proved." 



Natural History Survey staff members 

 have participated in various other pro- 

 grams closely related to management of 

 upland wildlife. The Survey sponsored 

 the initial acquisition in 1940, by the 

 Department of Conservation, of a tract 

 of sand prairie and wet land in Lee Coun- 

 t\ , the Green River Area, as a manage- 

 ment area for prairie chickens, water- 

 fowl, and other animals. It is believed 

 that this tract of land has played an im- 

 portant part in maintaining the only siz- 

 able flock of prairie chickens surviving 

 in northern Illinois. Howe\er, unless the 

 area is managed with primary considera- 

 tion for the original objectives, it may 

 well go down in history as the place 

 where native prairie chickens met their 

 end in northern Illinois. Prank C. Bell- 

 rose proposed the purchase of the Rice 



