Ecology and Management of Sguirrels 
Vol. 22, No. 7 
Page 2 
C. M. Nixon, 
L. P. Hansen 
Selection cutting (removal of single trees or small groups of trees) is 
practiced on many hundreds-of acres of Illinois' forests each year, yet little is 
known rega-rd-ing ther effects of this practice on wildlife. 
We studied the short term (1-2 years postcutting) effects of selection 
logging on gray and fox squirrels using 3 study areas. Two areas, the 44-acre 
Massac and the 3^-acre Old Barn, are located in Pope County and are a part 
of the Shawnee National Forest. The 39 -acre Cole area is located on private 
land in Vermilion County. Oak-hickory forests dominated all 3 tracts, with 
some tuliptree, ash, black walnut, beech, and sugar maple also present. 
Trees were marked for cutting by a forester and removed by a commercial 
logger. We made no attempt to influence either the tree marking or logging 
operations because we wished to evaluate the typical cutting ooeration as 
practiced in Illinois. 
Cutting intensity varied among areas, with tree removal ranging between 37% 
and 55% of the basal area for trees of merchantable size (£14 inches dbh). 
Cutting intensity was heaviest at Massac and lightest at Old Barn. At Massac, 
a mixture of oaks and hickories were cut, but 2 species, red oak and white oak, 
made up more than 50% of the trees removed at Old Barn and Coles, respectively. 
We found that these timber cuttings had no significant effect on squirrel 
densities, recovery rates (squirrels tagged one year and recovered the next 
year), movements, or breeding rates. In fact, squirrel captures in live traps 
increased on all 3 areas the year after logging. We did find that adult male 
fox squirrels tended to avoid the center of the cuttings whereas gray squirrels 
of both sexes were attracted to the center of cuttings at Massac and Old Barn. 
We postulate that gray squirrels, particularly those ^15 months old, are attracted 
to the insects and fungi that abound on logging slash the first few years after 
logging. 
We will discuss the effects of selection cutting on the availability of 
food and shelter for squirrels in the next report. 
Responses of Prai rie Chickens to Habitat Manipulation R. L . Westemeier 
Two problems of paramount concern in current efforts to preserve prairie 
chickens in Illinois are ( 1 ) predation on prairie chicken nests and (2) competition, 
harassment, and nest parasitism by pheasants. Nest success at Bogota has been 
below the critical level of 50 % during 5 of the past 6 summers primarily because 
of these 2 factors. The flock at Bogota (68 cocks) ;nthe spring of 1979 was 27% 
below the 1963-78 mean (93 cocks) (MWRL 22(4):2-3) and was 67 % below the 
phenomenal population level of 206 cocks present in the spring of 1973 . 
