782 NoTES AND CoMMENTS

and among several different habitats. Het­erogeneity among k values would preclude using Oakiand's ( 1950) method for sequen­tial sampling and applying variance stabi­lizing transformations given by Anscombe ( 1948! 1949). Acknowledgment.-~he research re­

ceived financial support from the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife through co­operative .wildlife research grants to Pur­due. University. We are indebted to H. A. Archibald, T. W. Beers, J. W. Moser, D. L. Schwandt, and H. P. Weeks for reviewing the manuscript.

LITERATURE CITED .ANscoMBE, F. J, 1948. The transformation of

Poisson, binomial, and negative bionomial data. Biometrika 35 ( 3/4): 246-254.

---. 1949. The statistical analysis of insect counts based on the negative binomial distri­bution. Biometrics 5 ( 2): 165-173.

Buss, C. I., AND R. A. FisHER. 1953. Fitting the negative binomial distribution to biologi­cal data and note on the efficient fitting of the negative binomial. Biometrics 9(2) :176-200.

---., Al'."'D A. R. G. OWEN. 1958. Negative binomial distributions with a common k. Bio­metrika 45 ( 1/2): 37-58.

BoWDEN, D. C., A. E. ANDERSON, AND D. E. MEDIN. 1969. Frequency distributions of mule deer fe~al group counts. J. Wildl. Manage. 33(4): 895-0!)5.

:t. 227 '#:I

KIRKPATRICK, c. M., c. M. WHITE, T. W. HOEKSTRA, F. A. STORMER, Al\'D H. P. WEEKS. 1976. White-tailed deer of U.S. Naval Am­munition Depot Crane. Purdue Agr. Exp .. Sta. Res. Bull. 932. 42pp.

McCoNNELL, B. R., AND J. G. SMITH. 1970. Fre­quency distribution of deer and elk pellet groups. J. Wildl. Manage. 34( 1) :29-36.

NIXON, C. M. 1970. Deer populations in the Midwest. Pages 11-18 in White-tailed deer in the Midwest. U.S. Forest Service Res. Paper NC-39, N. Cent. For. Exp. Sta., St. Paul, Minn. 34pp.

0AKLA1'."'D, G. B. 1950. An application of sequen­tial analysis to whitefish sampling. Biometrics 6( 1) :59-67.

STORMER, F. A., T. w. HOEKSTRA, c. M. WHITE,

Al'."'D C. M. KU\KPATRICK. 1974. Assessment of population levels of white-tailed deer on NAD Crane. Purdue Univ., Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 910. llpp .

Fred A. Stormer, Department of Forestry, Michigan Technological University;, Hough­ton 49931; Thomas W. Hoekstra, School of Natural Resources, The University of Ver­mont, Burlington 05401; Charley M. White, Department of Biology, Univer.sity of Wis­consin/Stevens Point;, Stevens Point 54481; and Charles M. Kirkpatrick, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Ind. 47907.

Received 4 October 1976. Accepted 25 May 1977.

ANIMAL USE OF PONDEROSA PINE FOREST OPENINGS

Artificial openings can benefit big game central Arizona as part of the multiple use insouthwesternponderosapine (Pinus pon- program (B:r~wn et al. 1974). This treat­derosa) forests (Patton 1974, Reynolds ment involved the creation of small forest 1969). Therefore, a vegetation treatment openings, 0.5 to 3.5 ha in size, to enhance designed to improve big game habitat by .. the forage supply while preserving suffi­creating forest openings was implemented cient cover to allow wildlife to make good on the Beaver Creek Watershed in north- use of the food ( Fig.1).

J. Wildl. Manage. 41(4):1977

JrrE. T. W, P. WEEKS

Naval k11-• E.-xp. Sta.

in the deer in

Res. Paper St. Paul,

Fig. 1. Forest openings created to enhance big game habitat in Arizona.

Primary evaluation of big game response . to the treatment included the analysis of fecal pellet counts. To supplement this anal­ysis, a visual record of the behavior of deer ( Odocoileus hemionus) and elk ( Cervus canadensis) in several openings was ob­tained by using time-lapse photography. Incidental information was also obtained for turkey ( M eleagris gallopavo) and cattle.

Three super 8-mm time-lapse camera sys­tems designed by Patton ( 1972) were used to ~ecord animal activity. Cameras secured to trees along edges of the openings were activated for daylight use by photoelectric cells. Openings were photographed on Ko­dak Ektachrome film at approximately 2.5-minute inter\rals. The film was viewed us­ing a Kodak Ektagraphic MFS-8 projector having slow motion and still frame capa­bilities. (Trade names are used for the ben­efit of the reader and do not imply en­dorsement or preferential treatment.) The slowest of the automatic speeds was found to be the best for initial detection of frames containing animals. Thereafter, single frame activation was used to determine species and numbers present.

To coxrelate photographed events with time pericds of short duration or with those occurring near sunrise and sunset, individ­ual frames were counted from sunrise to the initiation of the event, or from the event

J. Wildl. Manage. 41(4) :1977

NoTES AND CoMMENTS 783

to sunset. It was easier to use a stop watch to approxima::e time for events of longer duration or for those occurring at other times of the day. To dete1mine duration of use, it was assumed that animals remained within the openings during the entire 2.5-minute interval between f:rames.

Cameras were set out in May 1975 to re­c-ord spring use (May 12-27). A second filming period was made during late sum­mer and fall of 1975 to assess usage of open­ings prior to and during the hunting season, and movement onto winter range. During this latter period, the cameras were moved from 1 set of 3 openings (August 26-0cto­ber 15) to another set (October 15-Novem­ber 15) to increase the sample. In each recording period, 2 cameras were p]aced adjacent to openings where slash had been piled and burned. The third camera was used to film an opening where slash had been piled but only the peripheral piles burned. Sizes of all openings studied ranged from 2.5 to 3.5 ha.

For interpretatiou., the imagery was con­verted to an "animal-frame per day" basis. One animal image on 1 frame represented . 1 animal-frame while 3 animals occurring on 4 successive frames represented 12 ani­mal-frames. Summing all frames by species observed in a given opening and dividing by the number of days that film was ex­posed yielded an animal-frame per day value. While not necessarily a direct mea­sure of the response of animals to the open­ing, these index values were assumed to be indicative of relative animal use.

Comparing burned versus modified slash treatments, a significantly greater number of deer and elk animal-frames per day was recorded on those openings where slash had been piled and burned. In general, the analysis of fecal pellet counts substantiated this finding. Most of the animals observed were females with their young; only on oc-

<IJ$•<t'"lf<c·'•'-""'"·* .... '"""""'"""'~....,.-. ~.?.. . .,..f¥"-'" .... --··"""· _..,.~

784 NoTES AND CoMMENTS

casion were adult males seen. The most common activity within these openings con­sisted of grazing along the burned windu rows, where forage was greener and more succulent.

Regardless of the slash treabnent, how­ever, elk use was consistently higher than that of deer. There was no apparent hesita­tion by eilher deer or elk to move into or through the center of any opening. Residual slash~ when present, did not seem to pro­vide a barrier to movement.

Turkey use, while limited, was highest in an opening where most of the piled slash had not been burned. Cattle use was high­est in openings where the slash had been burned. ·

Pooling observations from all openings for all dates sampled showed differences in the iJlitiation of use. Seventy-five percent of the deer use began prior to 1200 hours, with the remaining use initiated between 1600 hours and sunset. As expected, most of the elk use (approximately 75%) occurred during early morning (before 0800) and again late afternoon ( 1600 to 1800). Turkey use was observed throughout the daylight hours. Similarly, there was no particular diurnal pattern with respect to cattle use.

Duration of use, accumulated for all openings and all dates, averaged: deer-11 minutes per event; elk--31 minutes per event; turkey-6.5 minutes per event; and cattle-17 minutes per event. These values are undoubtedly conservative, however, as animals could easily have been lost fr~m camera view by moving a relatively short distance from the field of view.

While fecal pellet counts can be used to determine which forest openings experi­enced greater· overall use, such analysis does not provide information on the type of activity, duration of use, etc. · Iowever, eoupling pellet counts with a visual record (obtained in this study by time-lapse pho­tography) of animal use, provides a more complete documentation of animal re­sponses to the creation of openings in pon­derosa pine fnrests.

Acknowledgment.-We thank David R. Patton and D. J. Neff for reviewing the manuscript.

JJTERATURE CITED BROWN, H. E •• M. B. BAKER, JR., J. R. ROGERS,

'-V. P. CLARY, J. L. KovNER, F. R. LARSON, c. c. AVERY, AND R. E. CAMPBELL. 1974. Opportunities for increasing water yields and other multiple use values on ponderosa pine forest lands. USDA Forest Serv., Res. Paper R.\11-129, 36pp.

PATtON, D. R. -1972. Construction of an 8-mm tim~-]apse camera for biological research. USDA Fore3t Serv., Res. 1'aper RM-88, 8pp.

---,. 197 4. Patch cutting increases deeT and elk use of a pine forest in Arizona. J. Forest. 72(12}:764--766.

REYNOLDs, H. G. 1969. Improvement of deer habitat on southwestern forest lands. J. Forest. 67 ( 11) :803-805.

Peter F. Ffolliott and Ronald E. Thill, School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721; War­J.'en P. Clary and Frederick R. Larson, Rocky 'Af ountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001.

Received 19 August 1976. Accepted 1 June 1977.

J. Wildl. Manage, 41(4}:1977