MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Hisrm sum 
MG 8 ) 978 
Illinois Federal Aid Project W-66-R LIBRARY 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
July, 1978 
Vol. 21, No. 7 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat R. E. Warner 
The first Rural Mail Carriers Census (RMCC) in Illinois was conducted over 
5 consecutive days in April 1958 and has subsequently been repeated at 5-year 
intervals. Preliminary findings of the 1978 RMCC of the 74 northern counties of 
the state are now tabulated. 
Eighty-eight percent of the 1,178 census cards mailed to rural letter 
carriers in 1978 were returned and usable; 89 percent were usable in 1973. A 
total of 366,005 miles were tallied on the RMCC this year--approximately 15,000 
miles more than in the previous count. The number of pheasants observed per 100 
miles of driving averaged 0.8 rangewide in 1978, compared with 4.9 in 1973, 5-5 
in 1968, 9*9 in 1963* and 7*6 in 1958. Thus, the number of pheasants recorded 
by rural letter carriers in 1978 represents a decline of 83 percent over the 
5 -year period. 
The 15 counties with the greatest relative abundance of pheasants are listed 
in Table 1. Counties that were among the top 15 in 1973 but were not on this 
list in I 978 include Macon, McLean, Iroquois, Moultrie, DeWitt, Kankakee, 
Vermilion, Champaign, Piatt, and Douglas. These counties, predominantly in 
east-central Illinois, rank 16, 21, 25, 29, 30, 33* 34, 39* 43* and 45* respectively, 
according to the 1978 RMCC. The northernmost two tiers of counties, broadly 
classified as a mixed livestock and dairy region, presently rank among the 
highest with respect to numbers of pheasants counted--a position that has been 
held in recent decades by the east-central cash grain belt. Declines in numbers 
of pheasants, observed over the past 5 years, were evident ,or all of the counties 
1isted in Table 1. 
The two factors that have most noticeably contributed to the depletion of 
populations of pheasants from 1973 to 1978 have been the continued expansion of 
row crop farming, resulting in less prime habitat for reproduction, and severe 
winter weather, particularly where protective cover is scarce. The RMCC indicated 
declines in numbers of pheasants of 80 to 96 percent since 1 973 in Champaign, 
Ford, McLean, and Iroquois counties. Declines of this magnitude have been 
directly attributed to severe winter storms in 1976-77 and 1977-78 on intensively 
monitored areas in these counties (MWRL 21(6):1). This evidence, in conjunction 
with the fact that ringnecks presently appear in greatest numbers where protective 
winter cover is most abundant (in the northern tier of counties), suggests that 
the dramatic decline since 1973 is largely the result of severe storms during 
the past two winters. 
