Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 3
WRONG
RUFFED
I
GROUSE?
COULD HEAR THE CONCERN
in the caller's voice.
"Are you the new grouse biologist?" he asked in 2011. "I'd like to
report something from my grouse-hunting
experience. I really hope I'm the only one
seeing this . . . but grouse have disappeared from the areas I hunt in Sullivan
County."
Unfortunately, this gentleman was
not alone in his concern. Not at all. His
worried voice joined a chorus of hunters
responding by phone, e-mail or handwritten letter. Their reports all indicated
grouse numbers had taken a dramatic turn
for the worse in the early 2000s.
As the new Game Commission grouse
biologist, I listened closely and took careful notes. Then I wondered. Pennsylvania
still had plenty of grouse. It still was a
grouse-hunting destination. Could our
state bird really be in the kind of trouble
that had longtime hunters so concerned?
While hunters listen to their gut, scientists follow a rigorous process - the
scientific method - to answer complex
questions. Readers might remember the
method's steps from high school: 1.)
Identify a question; 2.) Gather informa-
By Lisa
Williams
Game Commission
Game Birds Biologist
tion; 3.) Develop a hypothesis; 4.) Test
the hypothesis; 5.) Analyze the results; 6.)
Identify conclusions and implications, and
7.) Communicate the findings.
Hunters had completed the first step by
identifying the question: "What's happening to our grouse?" Clearly, if I wanted
to provide an answer, it was time to view
our ruffed grouse through the lens of the
scientific method.
VERIFIED DECLINE
I first looked at the facts. Did the
population numbers reflect what hunters observed? Each year, hundreds of
cooperating grouse hunters keep diaries
for the Game Commission, recording
from each hunt the date, county, hours
hunted, and grouse flushed and bagged.
So my first stop in untangling the missing
grouse mystery was to look at changes in
cooperator flushes per hour.
Sure enough, grouse populations
exhibited a steep decline in the early
2000s. Grouse are notorious for having
boom-and-bust population cycles, with
sharp declines occurring periodically. So
the population bust of 2001 to 2004 was
not necessarily alarming in its own right.
WEST NILE VIRUS' DEADLY IMPACTS
SEPTEMBER 2016
3
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016
Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Intro
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 48
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 52
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 56
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2016 - Cover4
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