Blue Grouse Census and Harvest in the United States and Canada

Abstract

Census procedures for blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) varied from intensive studies in Montana, Washington, and British Columbia to no work in Alaska, Arizona, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon. Extensive studies, varying as to degree, were conducted by Alberta, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The 1960 estimates indicated that approximately 300,000 blue grouse were harvested in North America. Estimates of grouse harvest were obtained by most states and provinces from questionnaires mailed to a random sample of smallgame hunters. Grouse harvest by species was estimated from check-station figures. Data sample size was small for both census and harvest. In 1961, I initiated correspondence, partly in the form of questionnaires, with all states and provinces which have blue grouse populations. The primary purpose was to discover census procedures applicable to Colorado. Tabulation of data from questionnaires indicated that further information on harvests was needed before census techniques could be evaluated, and I conducted additional correspondence to obtain this information (Rogers 1961). Blue grouse are present in 12 western states and 4 Canadian provinces (Aldrich, this issue, Fig. 2, page 533). Management of this species has involved much personal judgment based on few data, except in the states of Montana and Washington and the province of British Columbia. Most of the remaining states are now making some effort to determine general populations, establish population trends through counts, and secure harvest information. In many instances, this information is incidental to studies on other game species, although many new research and management studies on blue grouse have been initiated within the last 3 years. This new knowledge and interest are reflected in the reestablishment of hunting seasons in Utah and Wyoming, where they had been discontinued, and in longer hunting seasons and hence greater harvests in many other states. Early work on blue grouse dealt mainly with occurrence, nest locations, palatability, hunting, and numbers, with some reference to food relationships and migration. Complete life history and ecology studies of blue grouse were initiated in British Columbia and Washington about 1940 by graduate students in universities. About 1960, individual states inaugurated research and management studies.