Show Biologist Discusses Pheasants Pheasant's Habitat and Future By Bob Nielson Regional Game Biologist Utah Fish Be Game Dept I Like Like- the man who hunts them their ancestry can be traced to many parts of the theold theold old world yet years ago there wasn't a pheasant of In North I Am-I Am erica Ring necked pheasants came from the Far East with Julius Caesar being credited with forwarding them to Brit Brit- BritaIn Britain aIn where they were hunted with the cross bow I I IN 1790 THIS species of bIrd was brought from Eng Eng- England England land to the colonies but as far faras faras as we know none were firmly I established in the wilds until 1881 when 26 were Imported from Asia and re- re released released leased in the Willamette Val Val- Valley ley in Oregon and eleven I years later an open season was called with reports that the first day of the S season ason I birds were shot By the mid pheasants were established in much of Americas America's ranges and were spreading and increasIng steadily The i only one of the many members of the pheasant family but only the have adapted them them- selves well enough in Amer lea ica withstand repeated shooting NATIONWIDE pheasants I have had their ups and downs but during the forties the gen gen- general etal eral pheasant population mul- mul multiplied multiplied phenomenally THIS WAS perhaps the most spectacular eruption of game the country has ever seen Although there is dis dis- dis disagreement agreement among biologists as asto asto to the nature and causes of fluctuations it is safe to as- as assume assume sume that we will always have ups and downs in pheas pheas- pheasants ants but nevertheless there are two things we can do to improve our shootIng First we can improve our habitat for pheasants While this wont won't change the pattern of fluctuations it will serve to raise the level at which the toI I pattern operates so that over overa a long period of time we pro pro- produce produce I duce more pheasants per acre t Second by well well- planned hunting seasons and manage manage- management ment we can put a maximum number of pheasants in the hunters hunter's bag APRIL IS usually the mOnth the hen lays her eggs usually about ten taking about fifteen days these eggs I Iare are aU all hatched after 23 or 24 days wIth incubation starting after the clutch Is completed Within two weeks these young birds are lre able to fly although by spring usually less than half remain to es- es escape escape cape the hunters gun The hen never raises more than one brood each summer She will stay with her brood until her chicks are at least twelve weeks ks old Add the five weeks it takes for her to tolay tolay lay and incubate her clutch and you can see the summer is hardly long enough for two week 17 tours of duty A HEN WILL renest how how- however however ever if her nest or young brood are lost Although the young chicks start out on a strIctly insect diet the adult pheasant is es- es essentially n a seed se eater with the young pheasant shifting to waste grain as the summer progresses These birds have a high metabolic rate meaning they must eat frequently but with proper natural food and cover even a severe winter will have little effect on the rIng rIng- neck Habitat means altering the landscape to in- in increase increase crease the carrying capacity of the pheasant This can be bedone bedone done by buildIng up the fer- fer fertility of the soil roll for soils of low fertility will never raIse pheasants or even a bumper crop of corn or grain DISTRIBUTION of food and shelter Is another way of Improving pheasant habitat for ten acres of shelter in a strip surrounding a 40 acre field Is more effectIve than a aten aten ten acre square in one corner It Is interesting to note that from 1954 to 1959 small grain production decreased 22 in Uintah County and decreased wide state from 1959 1960 and since the pheasant for practical purposes is reo re to agricultural lands It appears that a decrease of this ma magnitude could affect the population adversely ARTIFICIAL feeding along with releasing game farm birds or closing the season certainly is not the answer to larger populations of rin ring necks where a natural population laUon lation exists I I |