Tren AUD UT BON, BU GL EsTUN 13 
Conservation Notes and News 
By Dr. R. M. STRONG 
FOXES NOT GUILTY IN PHEASANT POPULATION DEPRESSION. Many hunters 
have blamed foxes for reductions in populations of pheasants. Several years 
ago, a local sportsmen’s club tried to get the Forest Preserve District of 
Cook County to permit hunting of foxes in the Forest Preserves charging 
that foxes living in the forests go out into the surrounding fields and kill 
pheasants in considerable numbers. Some of us appeared at a hearing on 
the subject. The Forest Preserve District stood firm and did not yield to the 
appeals of the hunters. To have done otherwise would have had unfortunate 
consequences, not only for the foxes, but for those who seek recreation in 
our autumn woods. 
In 1947, the New York State Conservation Department selected two large 
areas in Central Seneca County for a study of the problem of how much 
foxes affect pheasant populations. Systematic trapping and shooting of 
foxes was done on one of these areas, and the other was let alone so far as 
the foxes were concerned. The populations of foxes on the two areas were 
compared carefully in subsequent years, and no benefit to the pheasants 
was found as a result of the efforts to exterminate the foxes. Details of 
the experiment are given in a booklet published by the Division of Fish and 
Game, State Conservation Department, Albany, New York, entitled: “A 
Study of Fox Control as a Means of Increasing Pheasant Abundance.”’ 
Condensed statements of these results appeared in Conservation News, 
November 15, p. 10, and in the Outdoor News Bulletin of the Wildlife 
Management Institute for September 28, 1953. 
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LONGEVITY FOR A Duck. Conservation News for December 1, 19538, p. 8, 
reports a male black duck shot recently in the Munuskong marshes in the 
eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The bird was banded in 1940, a 
survival of 13 years or more. 
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WHOOPING CRANE POPULATION. A gain of three in the population of these 
nearly extinct birds was reported in Conservation News for January lst. 
Twenty-four of these birds appeared at the winter range in the Aransas 
National Wildlife Refuge near Austwell, Texas. There were three less in 
the number which went north from this range last spring. These are the 
only known surviving whooping cranes. There were three juvenals in the 
flock this winter. 
Hunters along the migration route have been advised not to shoot any 
large white birds. Of course this advice would reach only some of the 
hunters, but it should help. Much depends on the development of public 
sentiment. 
