Vol« 7, No. 1 
Page 4 
Table 2- Temporal effectiveness of night1ighting prairie chickens, Bogota Study 
% Area, 1S62 and 1963 . 
Month 
Flushes 
Captures 
Percent Capture 
August 
37 
11 
29.7 
September 
39* 
21 
53.9 
October 
103 
10 
9.7 
January 
7 
1 
14.2 
Totals 
186 
43 
23.1 
* Thirty-five additional flushes were made when no captures were attempted. 
5. Rabb ? t Management W. R. Edwards, D. A. Casteel 
Preseason trapping of cottontails and the operation of checking stations at 
the Wayne Lake and Marion Lake wildlife areas provide a basis for estimating rabbit 
abundance and harvest on these two state-owned public hunting areas (Table 3)* It 
was apparent that the hunters using both areas had specialized preferences, as less 
than 7 percent of the 361 hunters attempted to take both rabbits and quail whereas 
34 percent hunted rabbits and 59 percent: hunted quail exclusively. The important 
consideration here is that the hunting pressure on each of the two species was con¬ 
siderably less than the total number of hunter trips to the area in question. 
During preseason trapping, 95 and 146 cottontails were captured, ear-tagged, 
and released on the Wayne and Marion areas, respectively. Recovery of tags from 
rabbits bagged by hunters indicated that about 17 percent and 10 percent of the 
fall populations of cottontails were taken by hunters. Actually, these estimates 
of proportionate harvest are probably high for both areas, particularly the Marion 
Area. There is reason to suspect that disproportionately high numbers of tagged 
animals were killed because of problems associated with random sampling and hunter 
distribution. 
On the basis of data on proportionate harvest obtained at the Allerton study 
areas, the removal of only 17 and 10 percent of the fall populations at the two 
state areas is considered well below optimum harvest. It is probable that at 
least 50 percent of the fall populations could have been taken without any serious 
effects on the abundance of cottontails on these two state areas in 1964. This 
means that the harvest of, and hunting pressure on, the rabbit populations on 
these areas could be increasdd 3~5 times. 
Population estimates for the Wayne and Marion areas were 897 and 1,460, respec¬ 
tively; these are considered minimum estimates because of the previously mentioned 
problems of sampling and hunter distribution. Although the acreages of the two 
areas are not readily available, the density of cottontails on the Wayne Area 
probably exceeded 1.5 rabbits per acre; densities on the Marion Area were consider¬ 
ably lower because of the greater proportionate acreage of forest. The success of 
cottontail hunters was good, particularly at the Wayne Area. Rabbit populations 
on both areas appear to be in good condition and capable of withstanding consider¬ 
ably more hunting pressure than they received in 1963* 
