MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Vol. 3, No. 1 
Page 3 
The raccoon hunting season opened 15 days earlier in 1959 than it did in 
1958, and this also had some effect on the increased harvest. The increased harvest 
of raccoons is reflected in the number of tagged raccoons killed by hunters on the 
Piatt County study area. Through December, 21 of the 71 raccoons marked on the 
study area had been harvested. Thus, 30 per cent of the marked animals had been 
killed up to the end of December compared to slightly less than 20 per cent 
harvested during the entire season last year. 
As was the case last year, many of the raccoons killed by hunters in Piatt 
County have had severe cases of pneumonia. Both adults and young were affected. 
Even though their respiratory efficiency must have been severely impaired, the 
animals with pneumonia were fat and otherwise appeared to be healthy. One sick 
raccoon picked up by a conservation officer in late November near Calhoun in 
Richland County died after a few days in captivity, apparently of a severe case of 
pneumonia. 
W-61-R-3 F. Greeley, J. Ellis 
A paper on the effects of calcium deficiency on laying hen pheasants was 
presented at the Midwest Wildlife Conference in Minneapolis and a Job Completion 
Report on the same subject was finished. 
During December, 218 pheasants were trapped by the night-lighting method in 
the southern part of Livingston County. Twenty of the pheasants (18$$ and 2dtT) 
were placed in the 2-acre enclosure located near Urbana. One hundred and ninety- 
three pheasants, 154 hens and 39 cocks, were released on the Neoga area. The age 
ratio among the hens captured was 0.92 juveniles per adult; the age ratio among 
the cocks was 1.56 juveniles per adult. 
