District breeding success of ruffed grouse must have been good again in 1961 

 since there were grouse in many woodlots and hunting success was reported by 

 hunters to be as good as in 1960. 



Hunters again co-operated in supplying field staffs with wings and tails of 

 grouse shot for age and sex studies. A total of 3,286 wings and tails were re- 

 ceived compared with 5,529 in 1960, even though greater efforts were made by 

 the districts to collect wings and tails from hunters. With the exception of Kempt- 

 ville and Parry Sound districts, the juvenile to adult female ratios were lower 

 in 1961 than they were in 1960. In Table No. 3 the hunter success of ruffed 

 grouse hunters is recorded for eighteen areas. The birds shot per 100 hours 

 varies widely between 8.4 in the Gogama District to 115 in the Kenora Dis- 

 trict. A general comparison with 1960 indicates an exceptional increase in the 

 Kenora District from 54 birds per 100 hours in 1960 to 115 birds per 100 hours 

 in 1961, and minor increases in Lake Erie and Kemptville districts of about 

 10% more birds shot per 100 hours. At the same time, in the Pembroke, Parry 

 Sound, Sault Ste. Marie, White River, Chapleau, Gogama and Geraldton dis- 

 tricts there are some very drastic decreases in the number of birds shot per 100 

 hours of hunting in 1961 over that experienced in 1960. This information sub- 

 stantiates reports from the hunters that conditions in central Ontario for grouse 

 hunting were at a very low ebb. At the same time, hunting in southeastern and 

 southwestern Ontario was reasonably good. 



Special Pheasant Project, Lake Simcoe District, 1961 



Since 1948 the Lake Simcoe District has received shipments of over 200,000 

 pheasants (chicks, poults and adults) from our provincial hatcheries, or an 

 average of some 14,500 a year. They in return have helped supply in the last 

 eight years some 8,000 hunters per year, two to sixteen open days of pheasant 

 hunting in our sixteen regulated townships. 



Although no records are available for the first few years, reports of low 

 survival of pen reared pheasants released into some of the townships were quite 

 numerous. Records of hunting success started in the early fifties, showed a poor 

 harvest per hunter, but it was not until 1958 that a plan was put into operation 

 to show some figures on reproduction of this bird in the District. 



Prior to 1957 field checks produced figures showing a harvest of approx- 

 imately .25 or 14 of a pheasant per hunter during the open season. During 1957 

 a small experiment in the Township of Whitchurch revealed figures we had 

 previously not thought possible. For some years this township was releasing 

 some 2,000 pheasants annually with an unusually low success figure in 1956 of 

 .18 of a pheasant per hunter. During 1957 they released only 500 pheasants, 

 one quarter the number of previous years. When 1957 harvest figures were 

 compiled a success figure of .50 or one-half a bird per hunter was shown. At 

 the time we attributed this 64% increase to three factors; 1. good natural hatch, 

 2. better survival during the spring and summer, 3. a larger check of hunters 

 during the open season. Whatever the cause was, it started us thinking along 

 the lines of "just how much natural hatch do we have?" 



Method: During the year 1957 the District banded 975 pheasants with 

 coloured plastic bands, the results of which were very poor as these plastic 

 bands stretched or pulled off the pheasant's leg. In 1958 a total of 1765 pheas- 

 ants were leg banded and released in Whitchurch Township. These tags were 

 metal and bore the Department's name and number on them. Only 56 pheasants 

 of which 20 bore leg bands were recorded shot this year. Although 110 pheasants 

 unfortunately were released in Whitchurch without bands that year, we assumed 



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