MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
T. G. Scott and Wendy Patton, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
January, 1962 
Vol. 5, No. 1 
1, Pheasant Populations and Land Use R. F. Labisky, John Warnock 
Hunters probably harvested a greater proportion of the available cock pheasants 
on the Sibley area this fall (1961) than in any of the preceding 5 years. A pre¬ 
liminary analysis indicated that 65.1 per cent of the cocks on the Sibley area 
were removed by hunters during the hunting season, November 18 to December 12, 1961. 
This estimate was based on the change between the prehunt sex ratio of 39.3 per 
cent cocks, obtained from the night-light trapping of 369 pheasants during October, 
1961, and the post-hunting sex ratio of 13.7 per cent cocks, obtained from roadside 
counts of 4,496 pheasants during January, 1962. The harvest of cocks on the 
Sibley area during previous hunting seasons was 59.4, 12.4, 44.0, 52.5 and 52.0 per 
cent in the 5 years, 1956 through 1960, respectively. 
On January 1, 1962, John E. Warnock joined the staff to assume responsibilities 
as project leader. Mr. Warnock received his Bachelor of Science degree in zoology 
from the University of Illinois in 1954, and his Master of Science degree in 
zoology from the University of Wisconsin in 1958. During the past 5 years, he has 
been engaged in an ecological and physiological study of the effects of crowding on 
the survival of field mice. This research will provide thesis material for his 
doctorate degree which he will receive from the University of Wisconsin in the near 
future. 
2. Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
Project inactive in January. 
3. Extension of Pheasant Range J. A. Ellis, W. L. Anderson, J. A. Harper 
During the latter part of December, 1961, 288 pheasants (40 cocks and 148 hens) 
were trapped by night-lighting in southwestern Kansas. The pheasants were trans¬ 
ported to the Neoga area and released. As of January 31, 1962, 13 "Kansas" 
pheasants (l cock and 12 hens) had been found dead on the Neoga area. These known 
mortalities constitute 4.2 per cent of the total pheasants released. 
A total of 217 pheasants were observed on the Neoga area in January. Fifteen 
of these pheasants had been marked during the prehunt period in 1961. The observed 
ratio between the prehunt marked birds and unmarked "native" pheasants indicated 
that the prehunt population was 550 birds (235 cocks and 315 hens). Another 
estimate of the prehunt population was based on the percentage of cocks marked 
