Abstract
Survival of 101 radio-marked hen ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in wheatlands of northeastern Colorado was determined using the Mayfield method, during March-August, 1979-81. Lowest monthly survival (0.786/month) occurred in April, primarily as a result of avian predation. Predation declined after green wheat attained adequate height to conceal hens. Hen survival remained high (0.998/ day) through nesting and brood-rearing. The survival rate for the March-August (184-day) period averaged 0.561. The annual spring-to-spring survival rate was 0.517 during 1981-82 when relatively mild weather and above average cover conditions prevailed. Adult hens had higher weights and survival rates than yearlings during March-August intervals (P < 0.01). Analyses failed to discern the impact of the transmitter weight:body weight relationship on survival. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 49(4):1044-1050 The importance of survival to management of pheasants was illustrated by Jarvis and Simpson (1978), who showed that long-term population fluctuations (based on spring indices) resulted primarily because of changes in survival of hens and not from changes in reproductive performance. However, survival data for hen pheasants, in hunted or nonhunted populations, are relatively limited (Leopold et al. 1943, Buss 1946, McCabe 1949, Stokes 1954, Mallette and This content downloaded from 207.46.13.93 on Tue, 02 Aug 2016 05:40:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
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