MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
NATURAL HISTORY 
DEC 1119 
'BRARY 
Urbana, Illinois 
November, 1975 
VoI. 18, No. 11 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat r. e. Warner 
Hunting pressure on the Sibley Study Area (SSA) and the Ford County Manage¬ 
ment Unit (FCMU) was light during the opening weekend (8-9 November 1975) of the 
pheasant hunting season. Favorable weather conditions prevailed during the 2 
days and fields were moderately dry. The soybean harvest, 95 percent of the 
corn harvest, and 80 percent of the fall plowing had been completed. 
Hunter success on the SSA during the opening weekend this year was the 
poorest in 14 years. The 61 hunters interviewed hunted 329 man-hours and killed 
20 pheasants (16-5 hours per bird). The number of hours in the field required 
to kill a pheasant in I 962 through 1974 was 2 . 2 , 2 . 7 , 2 . 1 , 8 . 0 , 6 . 9 , 8 . 1 , 5 . 0 , 
4. 7 , 3*4, 6 . 2 , 7.4, and 8.3* respectively. 
On the FCMU, the 60 hunters interviewed during the opening weekend tallied 
272 man-hours and killed 58 pheasants (4.7 hours per bird in 1975 , 3.1 hours per 
bird in 1974). 
Field time required to bag a pheasant on the SSA in 1 975 was 3.5 times as 
great as that required by hunters on the FCMU (16.5 hours per bird on the SSA, 
4.7 hours on the FCMU). Although effort per bird was greater in 1975 than in 
1974 for both study areas, man-hours per bird increased only 52 percent on the 
FCMU (4.7 hours in 1975, 3 .1 hours in 1974) compared with a 99 percent increase 
on the SSA (16.5 hours in 1975, 8-3 hours in 1974). 
A1 though pheasants were more abundant than in 1974 (MWRL 18(9):1), the hunter 
kill information for 1 975 does not reflect this increase, most likely because of 
the unusually advanced fall plowing. Birds were concentrated in permanent cover 
for the first few hours of opening weekend; thus, hunters having initial access 
to such cover had considerable success. The scattering of birds into plowed 
fields as opening day progressed made them much less accessible to hunters. Had 
more stubble remained unplowed, birds would have been more readily approachable, 
and hunter success might have been substantially improved. 
Ecology and Management of Squirrels 
C. M. Nixon, 
S. P. Havera 
One objective of our study of clear-cutting was to determine the immediate 
"3 ye ars postcut) effects of clear-cutting on gray squirrel survival, movement, 
condition, reproduction, and density. 
