MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH 
Vol, 1, No, 3 
Page 2 
Hunters harvested 36 per cent of the fall crop and were responsible 
for at least 1*0 per cent of the winter mortality on the hunted area. Hunters 
averaged 0.3U rabbits per gun-hour and hunted an average of 2.9 hours to get 
a rabbit this year, a 93 per cent increase over the effort required last year# 
A paper entitled "The importance of juvenile breeding to the annual 
cottontail crop" was given at the North American Wildlife Conference in St. 
Louis. The paper was well received and was acknowledged to have been one of 
the better papers presented at the conference# 
W-92-R-3* P. Vohs, R. Conder 
Wildlife observations and measurement of the spring growth of the 
interseedings were continued during the month# At the Little Grassy area, 31 
mourning doves, 10 bobwhite quail, and 1 deer were observed in the wide-row 
fields. The onljr game species seen in the control field were two mourning doves# 
On the Bradley area, three rabbits were seen in the wide-roi^ field ; none were 
observed in the control field. 
A paper entitled "Wildlife and Wide-Row Corn" was presented at the 
Forage Research Conference at the University of Illinois on March 20. 
W-99-R-2 F. Bellrose 
Waterfowl censuses were made on March 9, 6, 10, 13? 19* and one will 
probably be made on March 28. As a result of unforcasted snow storms, three 
censuses were terminated before completion. 
A comparison of waterfowl populations in March of 1998 xvLth those of 
other springs, reveals that populations of mallards and pintails are at ex¬ 
ceptionally low levels. Other ducks are from 1 to 2 weeks behind time schedules 
of other years# 
An example of the decrease in mallards is shown by a peak population 
of 911,000 in 1997 as opposed to 119,000 in 1998# Pintails numbered 87,000 
at their peak population in 1997 and only 9,000 in 1998. Poor food conditions 
and a rapid push of ducks northward with a warn movement of air might have re¬ 
sulted in the low spring populations of mallards and pintails in Illinois. 
W-96-R-2 G. Sanderson, K. Johnson 
An unmarked, sick, adult male raccoon was picked up on the Allerton 
Park area on March 19, 1998. It died in captivity four days later and was taken 
to the University of Illinois Diagnostic Laboratory. It proved to be negative 
^Southern Illinois University, Cooperating# 
