UPLAND GAME MANAGEMENT 



Upland game management objectives include regulations to 

 permit optimum use of resident small game species, several 

 of which are under-harvested; encouragement of practices 

 which increase the production of small game; and accurate 

 predictions of the annual availability of small game. During 

 the 1971-2 season, 369,192 resident small game and sum- 

 mer licences and 7,700 non-resident small game licences 

 were issued. 



RUFFED GROUSE 



Ruffed grouse populations reached a peak of their cycle 

 over most of the Province in 1967. Since the next peak is 

 not expected before 1975, the outlook is for better hunting 

 over the next four years or more. Hunters on foot took 

 31.9 grouse per hundred hours in 1971, compared with 

 30.7 in the previous year. Hunters on bush roads took 5.1 

 grouse per hundred miles, a sUght increase from the average 

 4.0 recorded in the previous year. 



SHARP-TAILED GROUSE 



Northern sharp-tails are stiU low in numbers in the James 

 Bay and Hudson Bay lowlands but should build up to a 

 cyclical peak in the next five years or so. The numbers of 

 birds harvested per hundred hours of hunting in Fort Frances 

 District during the 1969, 1970 and 1971 seasons were 153, 

 137 and 46, respectively. 



RING-NECKED PHEASANTS 



Ontario winters Umit the breeding distribution of pheasants 

 to a relatively narrow fringe of range north of Lake Erie 

 and the western margins of Lake Ontario. Areas, which 

 receive much over 50 inches of snowfall per season, support 

 few, if any, ring-necks. The future for this important game 

 bird does not look bright in Ontario because of changes in 

 the farming methods which have drastically reduced 

 essential winter and nesting cover. 



Because of low breeding populations of pheasants over 

 much of their range, the success of hunters is largely 

 dependent upon the release of pen-raised birds before the 

 hunting season. The Department has produced pheasant 

 chicks and poults each year for this purpose on provincial 

 game bird farms at Normandale and Codrington. Pheasants 

 reared to adult size, and released just prior to the open 

 season, put a very much larger percentage of birds in the 

 hunter's bag, and this practice is being encouraged. 



HUNGARIAN PARTRIDGE 



Partridge are live-trapped annually in Kemptville for 

 introduction into other areas of suitable habitat in 

 sourthern Ontario. Recent release sites include the Stayner 

 and Beeton areas and Lambton County. In eastern Ontario, 

 Hungarian partridge populations were high between 1966 

 and 1968, but declined in 1969 and are currently at low 

 levels. The number of birds bagged per hunter was 2.9 in 

 1968, and then fell to 1.4, 1.1, 1.7 in 1969, 1970 and 

 1971, respectively. 



BOB-WHITE QUAIL 



Quail are limited to the Lake Erie area where best 

 populations occur in areas of suitable habitat in the 

 Counties of Lambton, Kent, Essex, Elgin and southwestern 

 Middlesex. Quail numbers have increased considerably in 

 the past decade, and open seasons have been established in 

 the five Counties. A sample of Lambton and Elgin County 

 hunters, who were checked in the field, required an average 

 of 2.8 hours to take one quail in 1970. 



WOODCOCK 



The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service co-ordinates a spring 

 survey of singing male woodcock over their entire breeding 

 range. Ontario first participated in 1968 and has continued 

 this survey to the present time. It has shown that Ontario 

 supports one of the highest woodcock populations on the 

 continent. The 1969 season was a better year for woodcock 

 hunters in Ontario, and an estimated 76,000 birds were 

 harvested, compared with 59,000 in 1970 and 60,000 in 

 1971. In Ontario, woodcock are gaining in importance as a 

 wildlife species sought after by hunters and non-hunters 

 alike. 



SMALL MAMMALS 



Varying hare numbers continued to increase generally 

 across the Province. In the next one or two years, they 

 should reach peak abundance in their 10-year cycle. 

 Cottontail rabbits and European hares, our more southerly 

 "rabbits", stayed at moderate levels of abundance. The 

 woodlots of southern Ontario again show an abundance of 

 squirrels, and raccoons are even more plentiful than in 

 previous years. 



INTERPRETIVE PROGRAM 



The newly formed Wildlife Interpretive Program laid the 

 ground work for its mission of explaining the principles of 

 wildlife biology to Ontario citizens. The program's goals 

 include giving assistance to the public in their quest for 

 more knowledge of wildlife and helping people to better 

 understand the place of man in nature. Districts were active 

 in this field, creating marsh boardwalks, interpretive trails, 

 viewing blinds and habitat management demonstrations on 

 Crown land and Extension Agreement Area lands. 



PREDATOR MANAGEMENT 

 AND CONTROL 



Department staff conducted 115 investigations of predation 

 on wildlife, domestic stock and private property during 

 1971. Seventy-two control programs resulted from these 

 investigations in which 16 timber wolves, 21 coyotes, 6 

 bear and 43 domestic dogs were removed from the problem 

 areas. 



Predator control training and workshops were conducted 

 in three districts during the year. Instructions are provided 

 to Department staff and other interested persons in the 

 conventional methods of controlling problem animals. 



A total of $58,072 was expended for bounty payments 

 on wolves and coyotes in 1971, approximately $10,000 less 

 than that of 1970. This included payment on 1,157 timber 

 wolves, 2,065 coyotes and 86 coyote-dog hybrids. 

 Approximately 300 fewer timber wolves were bountied in 

 1971, as compared to 1970, while coyotes and hybrid 

 numbers did not change significantly. 



PROVINCIAL WILDLIFE AREAS 



PHEASANT HUNTING AREAS 



Pheasants were released in good cover (in number according 

 to demand) on four hunting units in Provincial Parks as well 

 as on the Gananoque Provincial Wildlife Area in 1971, and 

 many man-days of pheasant hunting were enjoyed in areas 

 where normally this recreational pastime would not occur 

 because four of the five units are outside the native 

 pheasant range. Approximately 4,500 birds were released, 

 mainly in these five areas. 



