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NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY 
APR 12 1977 monthly wildlife research letter 
LIBRARY Illinois Federal Aid Project W- 66 -R 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
March, 1 977 
Vol. 20, No. 3 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat « 
-- R. E. Warner 
From 27 to 29 January 1977, winter storm conditions of unusual severity 
occurred in east-central Illinois and throughout most of the state. Moderate 
^oowfall occurred late Thursday night and early Friday morning, 27-28 January. 
Winds gust 1 ng in excess of 50 mph prevailed Friday morning and temperatures 
dropped below -20 F in most of the prime pheasant range. Severe wind chill 
factors and blowing snow were recorded for Friday and Saturday, 28-29 January. 
After the severe winter blast, and with the assistance of biologists from the 
Department of Conservation, we collected 49 frozen pheasants from selected erras 
of study in Ford, McLean, and Iroquois counties. 
f T ° det !™i ne the cauSe of death and to eva luate the general condition of 
the frozen birds up to the time of mortality, the specimens were weighed and 
a!eraaed e q. 7 T perf ° rmed * Wel ? ht u s of the 38 hens collected (17 were juveniles) 
2 qU n T 7 ; ,p ; 1 rt' 9 ? f u the 11 COcks < 7 were juveniles) averaged 
1,293.4 g (Table 1 ). These weights are slightly below average for Illinois 
nnrm!r tS -'^ JanUary ^ d ° n0t re P resent a significant departure from the 
normal weight curves of winter pheasant populations in most Midwestern states. 
Thirty-nine (80 percent) of the 4 9 collected specimens were found to have sub- 
beanJ 8 - - eSerVeS ^ and 40 * 82 P ercent ) had food--principally corn and soy- 
to the'I?mp he f r H Cr °h S ’ r! n 9enera1 ' the P he asants were in good condition up 
t time of death. There was no evidence of nutritional stress that would 
to^cra^h ^ 01 an ^adequate food supply of scattered cash grains, inability 
to scratch through plowed earth or snow to find food, or feeding activities 
NeaMy S all o^the ex f® nded P er[od of time b Y extremely cold temperatures. 
° f tha co lected specimens were found to have deposits of ice in 
or snow ^Thes^f• h ^ kS ’ and [ n some cases entlre heads were packed with ice 
exposure tl e rll, - 9 ! ^ d ° cumented sl 9"S of pheasants that succumb from 
T^e severe cond ? n “'I! COndl V ?" 5 ° f wl " d ' tem P era ture, and precipitation. 
centJar tlinnU a d%h XP % r ' enCed 27 t0 29 Januar V are “"common 1 " east- 
prime range. theref o^ ^rely limit pheasant abundance in this state's 
On tJ h ?A eXtent ° f -? he storm “ re,ated mortality can be tentatively estimated. 
' 8 -square-mile Ford County Management Unit (FCMU), a prestorm helicopter 
lul «£»,' 2 C c m ?? Ja « ary '? 77 5hOWed an avera 9 e of 30 Pheasants per ^e 
( «WRL 20(2):2). After the storm, 31 of the 40 miles of roadway in the 
g d W re driven in a search for dead pheasants. Twenty-seven frozen birds 
passable T ° b ^ rvers from the road * If all roads in the area had been 
passable, up to 7-10 percent of the pheasants counted in the aerial census may 
have been observed frozen from the roadway. Because the portion of the FCMU * 
