Abstract
We investigated the survival and breeding success of common pheasants Phasianus colchicus of two origins and in two predator densities. We translocated hand‐reared and wild pheasant hens to southern Finland (60°N, 24°E) and hand‐reared ones to central Finland (63°N, 27°E). Both groups of birds were treated similarly before release and translocated to areas with no local pheasant populations. Both areas appeared similar, the only major difference being the amount of predators. The red fox Vulpes vulpes was the major predator of pheasants present in the southern study, where it was abundant, whereas it was almost non‐existant in central Finland. In accordance with earlier studies, the wild birds survived much better than the hand‐reared ones in the area with a high red fox density. The hand‐reared birds located in the low red fox density area survived better than the hens in the area of high red fox density. However, no significant difference was observed in the survival of the hand‐reared birds in the low fox density area and wild birds in the high fox density area. Interestingly, after the first two weeks, the survival of pheasants in different groups was equal. We additionally found no significant differences between the bird‐groups in terms of hatching success when comparing hens that managed to initiate nesting. No difference was also observed between the hand‐reared birds in the low fox density area and the wild in the high fox density area in brood survival to the age of six weeks. We conclude that even hand‐reared pheasants can succeed in brood production in an area with low fox densities. We furthermore suggest that pheasants that survive the two first weeks after translocation have good chances of producing a brood whether they are wild or hand‐reared.
Highlights
Results of pheasant introductions have not always been encouraging
Red fox Vulpes vulpes and badger Meles meles densities in Great Britain or central Europe are many-fold compared to those found in Fennoscandia, e.g. in Finland (Kauhala et al 2006)
No mammal predator is very abundant in Maaninka and there are considerably less foxes than in Suitia. Both bird quality and predator density affected the survival of pheasants, as has been found in earlier studies (Hessler et al 1970, Hill and Robertson 1988a, b, Krauss et al 1987, Brittas et al 1992, Wilson et al 1992, Leif 1994, Musil and Connelly 2009)
Summary
Results of pheasant introductions have not always been encouraging. Earlier studies have shown that the survival of hand-reared birds is usually poor (Hessler et al 1970, Hill and Robertson 1988a, b, Brittas et al 1992, Musil and Connelly 2009). Other predators are found, e.g. the raccoon dog Nyctereutes procyonoides has dramatically increased in Finland during the past 30 years (Kauhala et al 2006) This means that results from Great Britain or North America are not necessarily applicable for management purposes in Fennoscandia. Chicks born in the wild could be important in supporting wild populations since they more closely resemble wild birds Their behaviour enables a more challenging hunt than the use of hand-reared stocks. Mortality factors and reproduction of translocated hand-reared and wild pheasants in two study areas. We first investigate the survival of translocated wild and hand-reared pheasants in an area in southern Finland where predator densities are high. We presume that a high predator density (especially of red fox) negatively affects pheasant survival
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