Live Trapping North American Upland Game Birds

Live-trapping has become an important tool in the study and management of North American upland game birds. Uses of live-trapping include (1) transplanting birds to areas where there are no natural populations or where natural populations have been reduced or eradicated, (2) removing offending species from depredation areas, (3) obtaining brood stock for game farms, and (4) studying species behavior, movements, survival, etc. The object of this paper is to bring together materials on the various methods used to trap upland species.

Singing-ground surveys of the American woodcock indicate that breeding populations have increased gradually over the past 7 years while production, as indicated by wing-collection surveys, has remained relatively stable. The woodcock harvest, meanwhile, has probably more than doubled during the past decade. This suggests that while woodcock are probably becoming more important to North American sportsmen, hunting mortality is still relatively unimportant.

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