spring of 1950 to 32 in the spring of 1952, as compared to the change 

 from 104 to 15 in flock A in the same period of time. 



Figure 15 shows the trends of the population of the greater 

 prairie chicken in Missouri from 1920 through 1944, as given by 

 Schwartz (1945:36), with the open seasons in Kansas superimposed 

 by crosshatching. Also included is the hypothetical rise in the 

 population of the greater prairie chickens in Kansas from 1943 to 

 1949 and the decline from 1949 through 1952 as indicated in the 

 above discussion. Residents of the Welda Area say that the greater 

 prairie chicken was nearly as numerous in 1948 as in 1949. Figure 

 15 reveals that the open seasons in Kansas have coincided roughly 

 with the high populations of Missouri, but that at least the open 

 season of 1941 fell somewhat after the peak population was attained 

 in Missouri. Furthermore, the three consecutive open seasons, 1941- 

 1943, were accompanied by a more pronounced decline than oc- 

 curred in Missouri, without hunting, in the same period. 



1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 



RELIABLE REPORTS CENSUS FIGURES 



FROM MISSOURI FROM MISSOURI 



HYPOTHETICAL CURVE CENSUS FOR 



FOR KANSAS * ' KANSAS 



Fig. 15. Population trends of the greater prairie chicken in Mis- 

 souri (after Schwartz, 1945). Open seasons in Kansas super- 

 imposed by crosshatching, the population curve from 1941 to 1949, 

 inclusive, is estimated for the state of Kansas, and from 1949 to 

 1952, inclusive, is from the original data for the state of Kansas. 



It should be emphasized that heavy natural losses of adult greater 

 prairie chickens occurred in the period 1949-1952 in addition to 

 the loss from hunting. Were this not true, the kill of approximately 

 50 per cent of the population each year, as indicated by the numbers 

 recorded before and after hunting in Table d, would have been 

 balanced by the productivity of approximately 50 per cent, shown 

 in Table 7, and the population would have remained more nearly 

 static. It is evident, therefore, that the 1950, 1951 and 1952 hunt- 

 ing occurred in a period of naturally dechning population, or at 

 best a stable population and that the 1941-1943 open seasons prob- 

 ably occurred under similar conditions. It might be postulated 

 that if open seasons were held in a period of increasing population, 



[55] 



