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MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Illinois Federal Aid Projects W- 66 -R, W- 87 -R, and W- 80 -R 
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Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
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Glen C. Sanderson and Eva Steger, Editors 
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Champaign, Illinois 
August, 1932 
Vol. 25, No. 8 
Man ?pul at ion of Pheasant Habitat - W- 66 -R 8 . E. Warner 
Radiotelemetry data were recently analyzed for 5 pheasant hens with broods 
that hatched on managed roadsides on the Ford County Management Unit (FCMU). 
Use-of-habitat and movement data for these broods are unique because the 
pheasants hatched in nests 0.5 mile or farther from traditional foraging habitat 
(oats/hay)--a common phenomenon in recent years. The radiotelemetry data for the 
FCMU broods in 1975-81 may be compared with data for broods monitored on the 
Sibley Study Area (SSA) in 1972-73 whose nest sites were near fields of hay and 
oats; these grains were more common in that era. 
Use of cover by radio-monitored pheasant broods on the SSA and FCMU is 
summarized in Table 1. In the absence of hay and oats, broods on the FCMU 
(compared with the SSA) were located more frequently in corn and, to some extent, 
edge and strip cover (Table 1). The use of cover by broods on the FCMU, compared 
with the SSA, suggests the following: 
1. The increased use of corn was primarily for roosting and loafing activities. 
2. The slight increase in use of edge/strip cover was for increased travel. 
3. Broods hatching on roadsides tended to avoid the nest site and generally 
used roadsides only to travel to other cover types. These broods rarely 
used road edges for early morning drying activities. 
k. Wheat is not as attractive to broods as oats or hay-oats; broods near 
wheat were located at the interfaces of wheat and other cover types but 
generally spent little time in the wheat. 
Table 1. Use of cover by radio-monitored hen pheasants with broods near traditional 
brood foraging habitat (SSA, 1972-73), and for broods hatched on seeded roadsides 
0.5 mile or farther from traditional brood foraging habitat (FCMU, 1975-31.- 
Area 
Number of Radio Locations 
Corn 
Soybeans 
H ay/ 
Small Grains— 
Roadsides 
Edge/ 
Strip 
SSA 
69 
75 
188 
51 
50 
(8 broods, N = **33) 
(16*) 
( 17 %) 
(43%) 
(12%) 
(12%) 
FCMU 
307 
72 
15 
57 
116 
(5 broods, N = 567) 
(54%) 
03%) 
(3%) 
(10%) 
(20%) 
■^Oata are for the 1st 12 weeks of life. 
^Radio locations were in hay and oats on the SSA and in wheat on the FCMU. 
