Vo I 
, No. 9 
Page 3 
playing the major role in supporting the flock(s) at Bogota. Of the six booming 
grounds established at Bogota this spring, three were located on sanctuaries, two 
were within 100 yards of sanctuaries, and one was about 900 yards from the nearest 
sanctuary. The latter ground (Kellog), one of the major traditional booming grounds 
on the area, was occupied by seven cocks as early as January 1 968 but declined to 
three cocks during the main courtship season of mid-March to mid-April. Only one 
hen was seen visiting the Kellog booming ground. By contrast, the highest counts 
of hens on the other five grounds were; Zimmerman, 10; J. Woods, 10; Donnelley East, 
8 ; Yeatter, 5; and Donnelley North, 3 . These counts, totaling 37 hens, were made 
by observers in blinds, on different mornings, and very likely involve duplications. 
The highest total count of individual hens made on one morning was 18. The amount 
of shuttling between booming grounds by either sex remains unknown, with the absence 
of marked birds. 
However, the highest winter count of 72 birds (both sexes) made January 10, 
I 968 , is in close agreement with the possible total of 74 individual prairie 
chickens seen during the booming season. The highest count of cocks seen on one 
morning during the main booming season was 37* Thus, these observations indicate 
that a nearly equal number of hens was present on the Bogota Area this spring. 
The locations of 21 prairie chicken nests were subsequently learned through 
systematic searches of the sanctuaries (18 nests) and through reports by local 
residents (3 nests--on private land). Hatching success was 72 percent on the sanc- 
tuaries and 33 percent on private land, based on the above samples. The overall 
9 hatching success of 67 percent in I 968 is substantially better than the average 
hatching success of 4i percent for the period of 1963 - 67 * It seems reasonable 
to assume that the 18 nests on sanctuaries in 1968 represent between one-half to 
two-thirds of the total nesting effort by the hen population on the Bogota Area--the 
highest proportion since land acquisition began in 1962. 
6 . Rabbit Management K . p. Thomas 
During the hunting season of 1967-68, 587 rabbits were harvested on the Forbes 
Area by 319 hunters who sought cottontails exclusively. Although 139 hunter-trips 
were made in 1966 - 67 , these hunters bagged only 142 rabbits, or 1 rabbit per trip, 
compared with the harvest of 3 rabbits per trip in the 1967-68 season. The increase 
in hunter success from the hunting season of 1 966-67 to that of | 967-68 was 0.3 to 
0.5 rabbit per hour, respectively. These data indicated an increase in the rabbit 
population on the Forbes Area in I 967 . 
During the season 1 967 - 68 , hunters bagged 174 rabbits on the sharecrop-burn 
management zone (Zone I) on Forbes. The hunters saw an average of 7*1 rabbits and 
remained in the field an average of 4 hours. Zone I (250 acres) was hunted an 
average of 6 hours per day during the 75-day rabbit season. Despite this heavy 
hunting pressure, hunters bagged 1.6 rabbits per trip and 0.7 rabbit per acre, 
exclusive of the harvest of rabbits taken by hunters seeking rabbits and quail. 
On September 16, Mr. George B. Rose was employed on this project to conduct 
the population ecology phase of the study. Mr. K. P. Thomas will continue to study 
4 | the ecology of cottontails in relation to secondary succession. 
