Habitat Use and Movements of Female Ring-Necked Pheasants during Fall and Winter

Abstract

We studied diurnal habitat use and movements of 56 female ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) on private and public lands in southern Wisconsin from September through April 1968-71 using radio telemetry. Habitat use of female pheasants was a function of month, year, female age, and snow cover depth, but not female survival through April. Females preferred food patches and brush, and avoided pastures and active croplands in all 7 months. Shrub-carr wetlands were preferred by females in all months except October, and marshes were preferred in all months except January and February. Retired croplands were preferred from October to December, but avoided in January. Upland hardwoods were avoided in most months except for periods of deep snow cover. Monthly home-range sizes averaged 32 ha. Home-range size during 10-day periods peaked in late October through early November, and declined to a low in early January through early February. Juveniles had larger ranges than adults, and preyed-upon females had larger ranges than surviving females. Home-range size was positively related to corn harvesting and pheasant hunting pressure, and negatively related to snow cover depth. Females began a directional move (f = 1,150 m) to winter cover in late September. Distance to winter cover was also a function of female age, female fate, corn harvest, and snow cover depth. Heavy hunting pressure appeared to temporarily suppress the use of food patches and strip cover, and accelerate the final move to winter cover, but did not cause females to move off public lands. Females remained in winter cover from early November through early February, using a variety of areas and habitats. The abundance of wetland cover in winter may have been responsible for a lack of winter concentration and independent moves between adults and juveniles. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 53(2):462-475 Habitat management has been advocated to reverse the decline of ring-necked pheasant populations in the midwestern United States (Farris et al. 1977, Edwards 1985). An understanding of the movement and habitat use of pheasants is basic to prescribing habitat management. The pheasant has adopted different patterns of habitat use and movements in response to local habitat conditions (Olsen 1977), so that regional data on pheasant behavior are not universally applicable. There have been several general descriptions of pheasant habitat use and movements during fall and winter, mostly of winter concentrations (Olsen 1977), but few with data on habitat preference or home-range size. Gates and Hale (1974) documented habitat preferences in Wisconsin during winter and described fall and winter movements through visual observations of marked birds, but could not detail home range dynamics during these seasons. Recent workers have used radio telemetry to study the details of habitat use and movements in pheasants (Hanson and Progulske 1973, Warner 1979), but their data extended only into early fall. Wooley and Rybarczyk (1981) documented female pheasant habitat preferences and movements throughout the year with telemetry in southern Iowa. Penrod and Hill (1985) related female pheasant habitat preferences and home range sizes to female age, fate, and winter severity using telemetry in western New York. Dumke and Pils (1973) used radio telemetry to document the dynamics of pheasant survival centered on public land in Wisconsin. We present data on pheasants during the fall and winter from the same study area. Our objectives were to describe female pheasant habitat use, preference, and movements during fall and winter in Wisconsin, and show how they related to age, fate, hunting pressure, crop harvesting, and weather. Additionally, we tested 4 hypotheses advanced by Gates and Hale (1974): 1) movements in early fall and those to winter cover are separate, 2) females return to fall sites during spring, 3) movements of juvenile females to winter cover are not independent of adult movements, and 4) adults from the same fall sites move to winter cover in the same direction. H. H. Miller, of the University of Wisconsin' Present address: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707.