MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
^ c, 
/2 — 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, 111inois 
December, 1 963 
Vo 1. 6, No. 12 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use J. E. Warnock 
The age ratio in a sample of 441 cock pheasants shot by hunters and examined 
by biologists on the Sibley Area during the 1 963 hunting season was 9*2 young per 
adult. A ratio of 9*7 young per adult was obtained from 407 cocks captured by 
nightlighting prior to the hunting season. The 1963 crippling rate reported by 
the 468 hunters interviewed averaged 24.3 percent. 
In general, the success of hunters on opening day was poorer in 1963 than in 
1982: the 147 hunters interviewed on opening day in 1962 bagged a cock, on the 
average, every hour and 42 minutes; the rate on opening day in 1 963 for 265 hun¬ 
ters was one cock bagged, on the average, every 2 hours and 8 minutes. Hunting 
conditions in 1962 and 19^3 were similar in terms of weather, amount of corn har¬ 
vested, and amount of fall plowing, but the number of cocks available for harvest 
apparently was less in I 963 than in 1982 (see Monthly Wildlife Research Letters 
for August, September, and November, 1 983 )• After the opening 2 days of the sea¬ 
son, hunting pressure appeared to be much lighter in 1 983 than in 1962. 
Table 1. Pheasant-harvest data obtained by interviewing hunters on the Sibley 
Study Area during the hunting seasons of 1956 through 1963* 
Year 
Number of 
Hunters 
Interviewed 
Number of 
Cocks Aged 
by Bursal 
Examination 
Age Ratio of 
Bagged Cocks-- 
Young per 
Adul t 
Gun-Hours 
Per 
Bagged 
Cock 
Cocks 
C ripp1ed 
and Lost 
per 100 
Downed 
1956 
525 
251 
12.5 
2.3 
34.0 
1957 
443 
290 
4.7 
3-5 
24.4 
1958 
595 
445 
6.4 
2.5 
23.0 
1959 
461 
454 
5.6 
2.9 
17.8 
I 960 
496 
441 
8.3 
3-1 
31.9 
1961 
443 
402 
7.0 
2.8 
20.9 
1962 
833 
812 
11.9 
3.3 
13-0 
1963 
468 
441 
9.2 
3.1 
24.3 
