Vol. 14, No. 3 
Page 2 
An area of approximately 16 square miles in northwest Champaign 
and southwest Ford counties has been chosen for the experiment. A 
procedure similar to that followed for the Ford County Management Unit 
will be utilized with respect to planning and assessment of results. 
That is, Survey personnel selected the area, and will provide lists of 
farm operators and other necessary data and check on the progress of 
mowing in the area. Department personnel will contact the farm operators. 
As with the FCMU, signs will be placed at the entrances to the area. 
This undertaking will perhaps give some indication of the potential of 
this approach for future management programs. 
3- Ecology and M anagemen t of S quirrels C. M. Nixon 
Average implantation rates of adult (>16 months) and yearling 
(10-12 months) gray squirrels vary with the age of the female (MWRL 14 
(1):2) and also with the season of breeding. Placental scar counts 
from adults (N=40) breeding during the winter months showed a mean and 
standard error of 2.70 + 0.14 scars per female. Scar counts from 
adults (N=63) breeding during the late spring and summer months showed 
a mean and standard error of 3*49 +0.11 scars per female. This differ¬ 
ence in mean scars per female was statistically significant (£<^ 0 . 01 ). 
Yearling females (N=23) breeding during the winter months averaged 
2.43 + 0.12 placental scars per female, whereas yearlings (N=35) 
breeding during the summer months averaged 2.51 + 0.13 scars per 
female. This difference was not statistically significant (£^>0.05). 
Apparently, the physiological adjustment necessary for successful 
estrus, implantation, and gestation is much the same for the yearling 
breeder during both breeding periods. Yearlings may require one full 
breeding cycle to allow all the glands involved in the breeding process 
to attain their optimal interrelation with each other. 
For adult breeders, the ingestion of green leafy foods, fungi, 
insects, and fresh seeds, drupes, and samaras prior to and during the 
summer breeding period provides females with a higher level of nutrition, 
compared with winter breeders. Improved nutrition, particularly diets 
rich in protein and vitamins A, B, and E, improves prolificacy for 
domestic animals and probably accounts for the higher fecundity found 
in summer-breeding gray squirrels. 
4. Responses of Bobwhite s to Habitat Manipulation J. A. Ellis, 
D. R. Vance 
Bobwhites in the northwest portion of the Dale Area increased in 
number from 49 quail per 100 acres in November 1969 to 65 quail P er 100 
acres in November 1970, an increase of 33 percent. This increase 
occurred even though the total quail population on the Dale Area exhibited 
a slight decline during the same period. From 1 965 through I 969 , this 
26l-acre portion of the Dale Area was managed primarily by establishment 
of food patches. In 1970, 98 acres--representing approximately 75 per¬ 
cent of the open land that could be cropped—were sharecropped; 71 and 
27 acres were planted to corn and soybeans, respectively. 
