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08-06-2006, 02:29 PM
Article published Sunday, August 6, 2006
Release of pen-raised pheasants does not work
The annual releases of pen-raised pheasants by sportsmen's clubs and other hunter-conservationist groups have been a time-honored tradition, but it is misguided and ineffective, however well-intentioned.
That is a central conclusion that can be derived from an extensive research project by biologists of the Ohio Division of Wildlife, results of which have just been published in the Ohio Academy of Science's authoritative Ohio Journal of Science.
Although a downward spiral in wild pheasant numbers has leveled off since the establishment in 1985 of the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which sets aside marginal land for grasslands and meadows, "a return to historically abundant ring-necked pheasant populations is unlikely with current land-use practices," conclude biologists Kathryn Shipley and David Scott.
Their research revolved around release of more than 2,000 Sichuan pheasants, a ringneck subspecies without the "ring," and 208 ringnecks in selected townships of Licking County in central Ohio. The releases were done each April between 1993 and 1996, then followed for several years. The areas were closed to pheasant hunting and the birds carefully monitored.
Ohio tried the Sichuans after Michigan studies suggested that the birds might nest in woody cover - "a trait that could reduce agriculture-related losses common to ring-necked pheasants and potentially increase populations," the study authors wrote. In their native China, Sichuans inhabit mountainous oak and pine forests and brushy habitat next to agriculture plots.
Cutting to the chase, though, the Ohio releases didn't work. Predators ate most of the birds, losses running between 65 and 88 percent.
So releasing pen-raised birds for replenishing lost stocks - even though a traditional look-good, feel-good activity among sportsmen's clubs - is merely a way of providing easy meals for avian and mamalian predators.
And notes Scott, "If they are pen-raised birds, there is no evidence they will reproduce."
Even before release pen-birds already have been stressed by handling and crating. Suddenly they are freed into unfamiliar turf.
They do not know where the food is, or the escape cover. They are sitting ducks.
Scott cited instances where even wild birds, live-captured and relocated, suffered the same fate from disorientation and lack of intimate familiarity with surroundings so crucial to survival.
The findings, moreover, apply to ringnecks as much as they do to Sichuans.
"Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania [which also experimented with Sichuans] all were hoping that these birds were going to use more brushy habitat," said Shipley in an interview. "And I came away from that study with the opinion that pheasants are pheasants are pheasants, and if grassland habitat is available they will use it.
"Sichuans don't prefer brush any more than any other pheasant. They all will use whatever they can find that is as close to grassland as possible. One of the reasons ringnecks have held on so long in Ohio is that they're so flexible.
"And if you want a healthy, sustainable population and good hunting, you have to have good grasslands."
Her conclusions track very close to the tenets of the private upland habitat conservation organization, Pheasants Forever. PF, to borrow from Kevin Costner's film, Field of Dreams, steadfastly argues that if you build it (habitat), they (the birds) will come.
Ringnecks once ruled the roost in the American Midwest, roughly in the small-farm days of the 1920s through the 1950s. Wood County, for example, had a national reputation for drawing trainloads of upland hunters, including such movie stars as Clark Gable, for opening day of pheasant season.
But changing agricultural practices, from small mixed-practice farming to monoculture megafarming, and urban sprawl have contributed mightily to a steady decline in numbers.
High-quality grasslands, Shipley said, include timothy and orchard grass "with some forbs intermixed." The latter include goldenrod, ironweed and chickory.
Along with nurturing the grasslands is a need to park the mowing machines "till at least August" and leave the plots undisturbed Shipley noted. "Mowing is so bad."
Even some landowners in the Sichuan project didn't get it. "We had so many of those birds nesting. They [landowners] wanted to know exactly where the birds were so they could mow around it."
But, the biologist explained, pheasants need much more than an unmangled nest; they need the whole grassland complex with protective cover, insect food and travel routes.
"Intensive agriculture, use of pesticides, removal of fencerows and odd areas, suburban sprawl, and commercial development have had detrimental effects upon pheasant populations," the journal article concludes.
"It is doubtful that the answer to declining pheasant numbers lies in a new and better bird to release into declining and increasingly fragmented habitat.
"Rather, future research should concentrate on how intensive land use affects pheasant populations on a landscape scale and how land managers can positively impact those populations."
Adds Shipley about keeping wild birds around: "Habitat is the key. If you have good habitat, predators are not going to get them all. That's the way
nature works."
----------
The annual Women in the Outdoors day is set for Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Adams Conservation Club, 240 South King Rd., Holland. This year's edition will offer 18 classes to choose from, said event coordinator Cindy Cottrell. "We will be teaching archery, automotive emergencies, basic first aid, bugs, chainsaw use, fly fishing and tying, different gun classes, Tai Chi, water gardens, and wine making, among others"
To register contact Cottrell at 419-376-9487 or via e-mail at ikeandcindy@yahoo.com.
Steve Pollick is The Blade's outdoor writer
» E-mail him at spollick@theblade.com
» Read more Steve Pollick columns at www.toledoblade.com/pollick
:) :)
Release of pen-raised pheasants does not work
The annual releases of pen-raised pheasants by sportsmen's clubs and other hunter-conservationist groups have been a time-honored tradition, but it is misguided and ineffective, however well-intentioned.
That is a central conclusion that can be derived from an extensive research project by biologists of the Ohio Division of Wildlife, results of which have just been published in the Ohio Academy of Science's authoritative Ohio Journal of Science.
Although a downward spiral in wild pheasant numbers has leveled off since the establishment in 1985 of the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which sets aside marginal land for grasslands and meadows, "a return to historically abundant ring-necked pheasant populations is unlikely with current land-use practices," conclude biologists Kathryn Shipley and David Scott.
Their research revolved around release of more than 2,000 Sichuan pheasants, a ringneck subspecies without the "ring," and 208 ringnecks in selected townships of Licking County in central Ohio. The releases were done each April between 1993 and 1996, then followed for several years. The areas were closed to pheasant hunting and the birds carefully monitored.
Ohio tried the Sichuans after Michigan studies suggested that the birds might nest in woody cover - "a trait that could reduce agriculture-related losses common to ring-necked pheasants and potentially increase populations," the study authors wrote. In their native China, Sichuans inhabit mountainous oak and pine forests and brushy habitat next to agriculture plots.
Cutting to the chase, though, the Ohio releases didn't work. Predators ate most of the birds, losses running between 65 and 88 percent.
So releasing pen-raised birds for replenishing lost stocks - even though a traditional look-good, feel-good activity among sportsmen's clubs - is merely a way of providing easy meals for avian and mamalian predators.
And notes Scott, "If they are pen-raised birds, there is no evidence they will reproduce."
Even before release pen-birds already have been stressed by handling and crating. Suddenly they are freed into unfamiliar turf.
They do not know where the food is, or the escape cover. They are sitting ducks.
Scott cited instances where even wild birds, live-captured and relocated, suffered the same fate from disorientation and lack of intimate familiarity with surroundings so crucial to survival.
The findings, moreover, apply to ringnecks as much as they do to Sichuans.
"Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania [which also experimented with Sichuans] all were hoping that these birds were going to use more brushy habitat," said Shipley in an interview. "And I came away from that study with the opinion that pheasants are pheasants are pheasants, and if grassland habitat is available they will use it.
"Sichuans don't prefer brush any more than any other pheasant. They all will use whatever they can find that is as close to grassland as possible. One of the reasons ringnecks have held on so long in Ohio is that they're so flexible.
"And if you want a healthy, sustainable population and good hunting, you have to have good grasslands."
Her conclusions track very close to the tenets of the private upland habitat conservation organization, Pheasants Forever. PF, to borrow from Kevin Costner's film, Field of Dreams, steadfastly argues that if you build it (habitat), they (the birds) will come.
Ringnecks once ruled the roost in the American Midwest, roughly in the small-farm days of the 1920s through the 1950s. Wood County, for example, had a national reputation for drawing trainloads of upland hunters, including such movie stars as Clark Gable, for opening day of pheasant season.
But changing agricultural practices, from small mixed-practice farming to monoculture megafarming, and urban sprawl have contributed mightily to a steady decline in numbers.
High-quality grasslands, Shipley said, include timothy and orchard grass "with some forbs intermixed." The latter include goldenrod, ironweed and chickory.
Along with nurturing the grasslands is a need to park the mowing machines "till at least August" and leave the plots undisturbed Shipley noted. "Mowing is so bad."
Even some landowners in the Sichuan project didn't get it. "We had so many of those birds nesting. They [landowners] wanted to know exactly where the birds were so they could mow around it."
But, the biologist explained, pheasants need much more than an unmangled nest; they need the whole grassland complex with protective cover, insect food and travel routes.
"Intensive agriculture, use of pesticides, removal of fencerows and odd areas, suburban sprawl, and commercial development have had detrimental effects upon pheasant populations," the journal article concludes.
"It is doubtful that the answer to declining pheasant numbers lies in a new and better bird to release into declining and increasingly fragmented habitat.
"Rather, future research should concentrate on how intensive land use affects pheasant populations on a landscape scale and how land managers can positively impact those populations."
Adds Shipley about keeping wild birds around: "Habitat is the key. If you have good habitat, predators are not going to get them all. That's the way
nature works."
----------
The annual Women in the Outdoors day is set for Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Adams Conservation Club, 240 South King Rd., Holland. This year's edition will offer 18 classes to choose from, said event coordinator Cindy Cottrell. "We will be teaching archery, automotive emergencies, basic first aid, bugs, chainsaw use, fly fishing and tying, different gun classes, Tai Chi, water gardens, and wine making, among others"
To register contact Cottrell at 419-376-9487 or via e-mail at ikeandcindy@yahoo.com.
Steve Pollick is The Blade's outdoor writer
» E-mail him at spollick@theblade.com
» Read more Steve Pollick columns at www.toledoblade.com/pollick
:) :)