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Squirrel season will open in Rappahannock County next Tuesday, October 1. The season will remain open through October 15. A limit of 6 squirrels a day still applies statewide. The squirrel population appears to be good in most places this year. Check with the landowner and hunt safely. Close to 5000 doves were banded in Virginia this summer. Over 4000 being trapped and banded by Virginia Game Commission personnel. Nearly 1000 in the Northern Virginia district of which Rappahannock is a part. The age and sex of birds trapped is recorded and a numbered band placed on the leg before they are released. Banding aids biologists in determining mortality and productivity rates of doves. It also helps establish migration patterns, local movements and distances traveled. Hie greatest unknown in dove management is the effect of hunting on the overall mortality rate which is, of natural causes, quite high. Their reproductive rate is also quite high and so far as can be determined there is little difference in the dove birth and death rate between states that do and do not allow dove hunting. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service have plans to up the 1969 bag limit to at least 18 birds a day, in an effort to further determine the effect of hunting on the overall dove population. They feel that an increase of this magnitude is necessary to produce any noticeable results. It is considered perfectly safe however, since the worst effect would be a moderate reduction in dove numbers during the following year only.
Another word on dove bands. If you recover one send it to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Riey will inform you as to where the dove was banded, when and bv whom.
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