W'V^car'i 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
August, 1972 
Vol. 15, No. 8 
Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
The investigation of the feasibility of manipulating roadside cover for 
nesting pheasants has included the annual search of 42 unmanaged control road¬ 
side plots. These plots, selected at random from throughout the study area, 
exist in their usual vegetative state (unseeded), and no attempts are made to 
control or influence farmer management of these roadsides (mowing and weed 
spraying). Therefore, such roadsides are considered typica1 unseeded road¬ 
sides on the study area. 
Over the 9 years, 1963-71. an average of 28 percent of the acreage 
making up these roadsides was unmowed on August 1. There was, however, con¬ 
siderable year-to-year variation in the proportion of the total acreage of 
these roadsides that was unmowed. |n 1963, 9.4 of 17.7 acres (53 percent) 
were unmowed on August 1, but the proportion unmowed decreased each year 
thereafter until, in 1969, only 17 percent of the acreage (5.4 of 32.0 acres) 
was not mowed; in 1970 and 1971, about 25 percent of the acreage was unmowed 
(8 of 32 acres). The extent to which mowing phenology on the study area is 
typical of that in central Illinois in unknown. However, on the study area, 
at least, about three-quarters of the randomly selected roadside plots are 
usually mowed one or more times prior to August 1, thus greatly limiting their 
potential for producing successful pheasant nests. 
Ecology and Management of Squirrels C. M. Nixon, 
R. E. Greenberg 
The squirrel harvest in 1970, estimated at 2.3 million, was the lowest 
reported since 1956, according to data from hunter-kill reports. The previous 
low occurred in 1965, when the harvest was estimated at 2.4 million squirrels. 
During the 14-year period of 1956-69, the harvest averaged 2.8 million 
squirrels per year. The squirrel harvest in 1970 was 18 percent less than 
this long-term mean. 
The reasons for this decline in the squirrel harvest in 1970 are not 
fully known, but one contributing factor was that fewer hunters than usual 
chose to hunt squirrels that year. During the base period of 1956-69, the 
proportion of resident hunters who hunted squirrels ranged from 45 to 52 
% percent, an average of 225 thousand squirrel hunters each year. In 1970, 
only 193 thousand hunted squirrels, a drop of 14.2 percent from the long-term 
average. NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY 
SEP 6 1972 
