Vol. 5, No. 1 
Page 2 
prior to the 1961 hunting season that were harvested by hunters and the sex ratio 
among pheasants observed prior to the hunting season. This estimate indicated a 
prehunt pheasant population of 744 pheasants (285 cocks and 459 hens). The known 
mortality among 136 "native" pheasants marked prior to the 1961 hunting season 
was 25 birds or 18.4 per cent of those marked. However, 48 per cent of these 
losses were cocks harvested by hunters. 
4. Rabbit Management R. D, Lord, D. A. Casteel, Ann Holmes 
Analysis of the 1961 bag-check data from the Robert Allerton Park 4-H study 
area showed that hunters killed more rabbits, spent more hours hunting, and took 
fewer hours to bag a rabbit than in the 3 years prior to 1961. The hunting 
statistics are shown in table 1. 
Table 1.—Hunting statistics from the 4-H study area for the years 1956-1961. 
Season 
Fall 
Popula¬ 
tion 
Spring 
Popula¬ 
tion 
Rabbits 
Bagged 
Per Cent of 
Fall Crop 
Gun- 
Hours 
Hours Per 
Rabbit 
1956-57 
333 
47 
113 
33.9 
154 
1.36 
1957-58 
259 
31 
92 
35.5 
269 
2.92 
1958-59 
324 
132 
109 
33.6 
365 
3.35 
1959-60 
239 
56 
95 
39.7 
323 
3.40 
1960-61 
309 
162 
Experimental 
curtailment 
of hunting 
this year 
1961-62 
363 
not yet 
censused 
167 
46.0 
417 
2.50 
The increased returns in 1961 are almost certainly a result of curtailment of 
hunting in 1960. These results point to a possible technique for producing supe¬ 
rior upland game hunting on controlled shooting areas. Curtailment of hunting for 
1 year appears to produce a bumper crop the following year. Thus, a large con¬ 
trolled shooting area might be divided in half, with hunting allowed on each half 
in alternate years. This technique would be questionable for more mobile species 
such as pheasants, unless the shooting area was extremely large. 
5. Investigations of Furbearers Ralph J. Ellis 
During the 1960-61 trapping season, a total of 279 mink carcasses were 
collected from the Bauer Fur Company in the southern hunting zone and the Perardi 
Brothers Fur Company in the northern hunting zone. All carcasses collected prior 
to January 10 have been examined for indices of physiological condition and repro 
ductive status. The data on reproductive status are presented in table 2. 
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