MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
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Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois December, 1964 Vol . 7, No- 12 
1. Pheasant Populations and i_and Use S. L. Etter 
The age ratio of 420 cock pheasants shot by hunters and examined by biologists 
on the Sibley Study Area during the 1964 hunting season was 8.8 juveniles per adult. 
A ratio of 6.6 juveniles per adult was obtained from 206 cocks captured by night¬ 
lighting prior to the hunting season. The crippling rate reported by 414 hunters 
interviewed in 1964 averaged 21.0 percent. 
The success of hunters on opening day in 1964 was slightly better than in 
1963 in spite of a 30-35 percent decrease in the number of cocks available for 
harvest (Monthly Wildlife Research Letters; August, September, October; 1964). 
The 256 hunters interviewed on opening day in 1964 bagged a cock, on the average, 
every hour and 59 minutes, whereas 265 hunters interviewed on opening day in 1963 
required, on the average, 2 hours and 8 minutes to bag a cock. The increased 
hunter success in 1964 appeared to be due to a concentration of pheasants in and 
near the small amount of cover which remained after an unusually large percentage 
of farmland was fall-plowed. Light hunting pressure after opening day, when more 
time was required to bag a cock, also contributed to the higher hunter success in 
1964. 
Table 1. Pheasant-harvest data obtained by interviewing hunters on the Sibley 
Study Area during the 1960-64 nun ting seasons. 
Year 
Number of 
Hunters 
1nterviewed 
Number of 
Cocks Aged 
by Bursal 
Examination 
Age Ratio of 
Bagged Cocks 
(Young per Adu1t) 
Gun-Hours 
per 
Bagged Cock 
Cocks Crippled 
and Lost per 
100 Downed 
i960 
496 
441 
8.3 
3-1 
31 -9 
1961 
443 
402 
7-0 
2.8 
20.9 
1962 
833 
812 
n .9 
3-3 
13.0 
1963 
468 
441 
9.2 
3-1 
24.3 
1964 
414 
420 
8.8 
2.5 
21 .0 
2. Manipu1 at ion of Pheasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
Eighty-five pheasant nests were found on the seeded and managed control road¬ 
side plots in 1963» 44 nests on seeded plots and 41 on control plots (Table 2). 
In 1964, 106 nests were located, 68 on seeded plots and 38 on managed control plots 
The density of nests increased considerably (54.5 percent) on seeded plots but 
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