Vo 1. 10, No. 6 
Page 4 
During the 1966-67 season, rabbit hunters made 3&I trips and spent 1,114 hours 
• harvesting 558 cottontails on the Sam Dale Park. These were the largest numbers 
of hunter-trips, hours hunted, and rabbits harvested during the past 4 years on 
the Dale Area; the popularity of this park as a place to hunt rabbits has increased 
each year since 1963- However, hunter-success at the Dale Area did not increase 
during the 1966-67 season as there were 1.5 rabbits harvested per hunter-trip 
(compared with 3*1> 1*8, *nd 2.0 during the previous three seasons) and 0-5 rabbit 
harvested per gun-hour (compared with 1.1, 0.4, and 0.6 during the previous three 
seasons). 
During the 1 966-67 season, rabbit hunters made 139 trips and spent 450 hours 
harvesting 142 cottontails on the Stephen A. Forbes Park. The numbers of hunter- 
trips and of hours hunted by rabbit-hunters on the Forbes Area have not increased 
steadily during the past 4 years, as they have on the Dale Area, perhaps because 
hunter-success has generally been higher at the latter park. Hunter-success at 
the Forbes Area during the 1966-67 hunting season was 1.0 rabbit harvested per 
trip (compared with 1.6, I.7, and 1.4 during tne previous three seasons) and 0.3 
rabbit harvested per gun-hour (compared with 0.4, 0.5, and 0.4 during the previous 
three seasons). 
The programs of habitat manipulation on the Dale and Forbes areas were altered 
during 1 966 - During the first hunting season following initiation of the new 
methods of habitat manipulation, success-rates of rabbit-hunters declined on both 
areas, continuing the general downward trends which have now been evident for 4 
years. 
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