MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Illinois Federal Aid Projects 1/-66-R, V7-o7“R, and W-3C-R 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Eva Steger, Editors 
n 
U 
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Urbana, Illinois 
November, 1981 
Vol. 24, Mo. 11 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habita t - 17-66-R R. E. Warner 
Last month (Ml/RL 24(10) :l), we postulated that mortality was unusually high 
in 1931 for pheasant chicks that hatched after the normal mid-June peak on the 
Ford County Management Unit (FCiiU) and Sibley Study Area (SSA). However, molt 
data from juvenile cocks bagged on the study areas during opening weekend (7“3 
November 1901) did not substantiate that hypothesis. Primary feather lengths 
of 16 juvenile cocks inspected opening weekend, 1931, indicated that 0 (50%) 
hatched during the last week of June or later, 43% and 39% of juvenile cocks 
hatched during the same period in 1930 and 1979, respectively* 
Greater effort was needed to bag a cock on the SSA and FCMU in 1931 than in 
1930 (Table 1). The increased time per cock bagged is attributed to the slow 
progress in fall farm operations. Pheasants were able to seek refuge from hunters 
in unharvested corn and in vast acreages of unplowed com stubble. The few 
hunters (Table 1) were unable to keep the birds moving and vulnerable to the gun. 
If harvest and tilling operations had been as nearly complete by opening weekend 
in 1931 as in 1930, hunter success would probably have been as high this year 
as for any opening weekend since 1975 (Table 1). 
Table 1. Pheasant hunting statistics on the Sibley Study Area (SSA) and Ford 
County Management Unit (FCMU) during the opening weekend of the upland game 
season, 197 3~ 31. 
1973 
1974 
1975 
1976 
1977 
1973 
1979 
1S30 
1931 
Parties interviewed— 
28 
36 
23 
27 
18 
30 
26 
21 
19 
Parties sighting cock 
pheasants.?. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
22 
20 
16 
Cock pheasants bagged— 
si 
73 
78 
30 
27 
56 
26 
48 
31 
Percentage of birds 
aged juvenile?- 
35 
71 
62 
74 
75 
34 
31 
76 
79 
Man-hours expended per 
cock bagged 
SSA 
7.4 
8.3 
16.5 
9.7 
35.0 
13.4 
71.0 
9.9 
43.0 
FCMU 
7.4 
3.1 
4.7 
6.2 
11.6 
7.9 
11.1 
5.3 
9.7 
Man-hours expended per 
pheasant observed— 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
M.A. 
2.0 
1.1 
1.3 
--Statistics for both study areas combined. 
