SORA RAIL POPULATIONS IN ALBERTA, 1953-195) 
Allen G. Smith 
U. Se Fish and Wildlife Service 
Since 1947, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation 
with the Canadian Wildlife Service and the individual provincial Game 
Branches has been conducting joint waterfowl investigations in the 
Prairie Provinces of Canada. In Alberta, these surveys began as ground 
studies utilizing extensive roadside transects as a means of appraising 
waterfowl breeding populations and production. This was later supple- 
mented by the use of an aircraft. Ground transects as such were then 
abandoned and intensive ground studies of selected areas within the 
various habitat types were substituted. 
In the past, we have repeatedly been impressed by the numbers of 
sora rail, Porzana carolina, observed during field studies of ducks 
and geese. Until 1953, however, no particular effort was made to 
measure this population because of the press of other duties. Last 
year, while in the process of mapping the vegetation of each special 
study area as well as the details of emergent and submergent plant 
growth of each water area, the author made a count of the rails seen 
or heard on or near these water bodies. The results were so surpris- 
ing as to warrant further work on this species, No detailed survey 
of the province of Alberta was possible, Nevertheless, data collected 
on the special study areas, which are representative of parkland and 
prairie habitats in that province, is presented here with the feeling 
that it may be of some value considering the paucity of information 
now available on this game species, 
Sora rail observations were made in 1953 by Messrs. Wayne Hever, 
Ue Se Fish and Wildlife Service, Jack Millar, Alberta Game Branch, and 
the author; in 195, by Messrs. Wayne Heuer, Dennis Weisser of the 
Alberta Game Branch, and Harry Webster and David Hurst of the Canadian 
Wildlife Service. 
No effort is made here to offer the census method utilized in this 
study as the best available, nor should it be implied thet the projec- 
tion of the population figures observed on small areas, to larger areas 
is a biologically sound and tested method of ascertaining the resident 
sora rail populations over the entire province of Alberta. At best, 
it would merely be an index figure, open for adjustments or corrections 
as better methods are devised and more detailed observations over 
larger portions of the range of this species are completed. 
Methods of Study 
For purposes of our waterfowl investigations, the province of 
Alberta has been divided into four vegetative strata, following the 
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