MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Vol. 2, No. 11 
Page 3 
colony died of the same disease. 
The disease was passed to a young raccoon by feeding her pieces of gut 
from one of the captive animals which had died. It died 7 days after eating 
the infected gut, and the symptoms were the same as those of previously infected 
animals. 
University of Illinois veterinarians have successfully infected two 
ranch mink with material from the dead captive raccoons. Two mink which were 
fed pieces of gut on successive days died 7 days after eating the gut. The 
veterinarians plan to make further studies with the disease which appears to be 
a virus but not the same as feline enteritis. Vaccine against feline enteritis 
failed to protect captive raccoons from the disease, and feline enteritis causes 
different symptoms in ranch mink than does the raccoon enteritis. 
W-61-R-3 F. Greeley, J. Ellis 
A job completion report on the effects of calcium deficiency on laying 
hen pheasants was written. Statistical tests for significance of the data were 
begun. Preliminary summaries of these data were presented in earlier reports. 
Fewer cock pheasants were killed on the Neoga and Bellmont areas in 1959 
than in any previous year (see table 2). The lower kill was believed to have 
been influences primarily by a decline in the numbers of pheasants. At Bellmont, 
however, conditions were not as favorable for hunting in 1959 as in 1958. In 
1959, most of the corn on the area remained unharvested on the opening day of the 
season, and the weather was cool and wet during the season. 
Table 2.—Pheasant hunting effort and kill at Neoga and Bellmont, 1957-1959. 
NEOGA 
BELLMCNT 
Year 
Cocks 
Gun-hours 
Cocks 
Gun-hours 
Killed 
Per Cock 
Killed 
Per Cock 
1957 
52 
12 
Season Closed 
1958 
37 
7 
40 
18 
1959 
5 
7 
• 
8 
34* 
^Average time required to kill 6 cocks. 
