MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
2^- 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois February, I 966 Vol. 9 , No. 2 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use W. J. Francis, S. L. Etter 
Cock harvest during the 1965 hunting season, as indicated by returns of back 
tags and/or leg bands from cocks captured and marked prior to the opening of the 
hunting season, was lower than in any of the preceding 3 years (Table 1). Only 27 
(20 percent) of the 136 cocks tagged during October and early November, 1 965 , were 
reported killed during the 1965 hunting season. 
The lower kill in 1 965 appeared to be due to the lower pheasant population 
and to large acreages of standing corn during most of the hunting season, rather 
than to the reduction in length of season and in bag limit. An additional week or 
two of hunting would have resulted in a slightly higher kill than occurred in 1 965 
because the corn harvest would have been completed by that time. However the 
trend toward lower proportional and total kills with lower populations is estab¬ 
lished by the 1962-64 data (Table 1). During these 3 years the percent of cocks 
harvested decreased with the declining populations in spite of increases in length 
of season. 
Table 1. Cock harvest in relation to prehunt pheasant density, bag limit, and 
length of hunting season, Sibley Study Area, 1962-65. 
Year 
Cocks per 
Sect ion 
(Prehunt) 
Bag 
Limit 
(Cocks) 
Length 
of Season 
(Days) 
Percent 
of Cocks 
Harvested * 
1962 
177* 
3 
29? 
48 
1963 
118* 
3 
33i 
37 
1964 
00 
0 
3 
36^ 
35 
1965 
64 + 
2 
29? 
20 
* Based upon 
t Based upon 
* Based upon 
the ratio of tagged 
summer brood surveys 
returns of back tags 
to untagged cocks in 
and/or leg bands. 
the kill. 
2. Man ipulation of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
Seeded roadside plots on the Sibley Study Area vary in slope from 0 to 30 
degrees. In each of the last 3 years pheasants established nests throughout this 
entire range. Chi-square tests performed to determine whether there was a signif¬ 
icant tendency for pheasants to nest on slopes of certain degrees or, at the same 
time, to avoid slopes of other degrees (Table 2) showed no effect of slope on 
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