Foods and Nutrition of Ruffed Grouse in Missouri

Abstract

In efforts to reestablish the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) in Missouri, three experimental areas were recently stocked with wild birds trapped in Ohio and Indiana: Ashland Wildlife Research Area, Boone County; Daniel Boone State Forest, Warren County; and Carman Spring Refuge, Howell County. Seven thousand samples of droppings collected in all months, February, 1961-September, 1964, were analyzed to learn principal foods and native plants that might be managed to benefit grouse under Missouri conditions. Plant foods of 111 kinds, or groups, and 33 animal foods were identified. Diet and degree of utilization of foods varied greatly by season and year. Principal foods in decreasing order of volume were: unidentified green leaf materials, hop hornbeam, acorns, wild grapes, tick trefoils, Japanese (multiflora) rose, ladies' tobacco, fragrant sumac, bittersweet, bush clovers, Korean lespedeza, hazelnut, Christmas fern, and sedges. No animal food was important in the year-round diet. Nutritional analyses based upon food composition and volume percentages in the diet showed that body building protein (15.5 percent) was taken in greatest amount during summer, fat (6.4 percent) and carbohydrates (71.5 percent) as fat and energy producing compounds were taken most in winter, and the largest mineral amounts (6.6 percent) were taken during the summer period of production, growth, and development. Selection of quality foods to meet bodily needs was indicated. Approximately 15 percent, by volume, of all foods was furnished by high canopy trees, 45 percent by understory trees, shrubs, vines, and brambles, and 40 percent by herbaceous forbs and grasses. The data emphasize the need for mixed vegetative types in productive grouse habitat. The purpose of this paper is to report on the principal foods of ruffed grouse on release areas where attempts were made to reestablish this species in Missouri. Nutritional values and management possibilities for some of the more important food species also are considered. Data were derived from 7,000 grouse droppings collected during all months, February, 1961 to September, 1964. The ruffed grouse originally inhabited most of the forested area of Missouri. Populations in early settlement days are unknown, but have been estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Numbers declined rapidly following settlement; birds were limited to a few Ozark and northeastern counties by 1900. Hunting was made illegal in 1905, and ruffed grouse have never since been legally hunted in Missouri (Bennitt and Nagel 1937:41). The recent history of Missouri grouse is uncertain; gradual decline in population has continued, but it is doubted that the species was exterminated. Reports persisted that a few birds remained in isolated locations. Experimental stocking with Ohio and Indiana wild-trapped ruffed grouse was begun in 1959. Thanks are due Biologist John B. Lewis for assistance on most field trips in search for grouse and study materials. STUDY AREAS AND RESTOCKING