Ringnecked Pheasant - Invasive Species or Valuable Game Bird?

A lot of varied info in this article, but all is important...

http://thebirdhuntingsociety.weebly.com/ring-necked-pheasant-ndash-invasive-species-or-valuable-gamebird.html

I find it prophetic that it is people who scream for animal rights that are against the pheasant and other game birds.
I also find it typical that those who don't participate think no one should be allowed to participate.
Maybe we should protest and work to get rid of the things these people hold dear to their hearts, putting the proverbial shoe on the other foot.
Or, perhaps we should protest that they are promoting the extinction of a species and show what bad guys they really are.

Redhawk

Crazy!

From the article:

High rate of reproduction
Pioneer Species (able to colonize areas after they have been disturbed)
Short generation times
Long-lived
High dispersal rates
Single-parent reproduction
Vegetative or clonal reproduction
High genetic variability
Broad native range / Tolerant of wide range of conditions / Habitat generalist (can live in many different types of habitats)
Abundant in native range
Broad diet
Gregarious
Human commensal (lives in close association with humans)


Damn.... us humans are pretty invasive!

Well Chris, if you can find another animal that is working hard to destroy the very planet that gives it life, please let me know.

Redhawk

Several years ago one of my turkeys disappeared. We searched for her and after a couple days finally found her on a clutch of eggs. A few weeks later, she returned to the coop with 13 little ones following. It was a funny thing about those peeps. As they grew they never seemed to want to mix in with the rest of the flock. They kept separate. Then they disappeared like their hen had. ...But they never came back. The following Summer we finally spotted them. They had walked (or flown) a mile or two down the road to one of the undeveloped parks that surround us. In the years since, we see that "new" greatly increased flock of turkey's as they cross the road on their rounds from ledges to woods. Scratching for bugs, grubs and nuts as they go. They are a pretty sight, and it didn't the government to do the "restocking" of the woods. I highly recommend doing the same to you all. Come Spring, think about getting some pheasant, quail or turkey peeps. Raise 'em and let'em go. The woods will like it. They're nice to see. And maybe there will be fewer ticks and such in your area. And who knows, its still not too politically incorrect to celebrate Thanksgiving. Particularly with a non-vegetable main course on the table.

great story about nature there Jim, thank you for sharing it.

While we have not taken to "stocking" we have improved the north face of our bit of mountain enough that we have wild turkey moving in, quail are coming in as are more deer and the other animals.
We had a neighbor that hunted out the squirrel population to the point of having an illegal number of them in his freezer, he is no longer living near us and it has taken two years to see any squirrels on our property.
The more we leave that north face alone, except for adding food plants, the more wild life we get to see.

I am a hunter, when I need the food. If we don't need the food, they live a nice life on our land without harassment.
While I have guns for hunting, I prefer to use my bow, as my ancestors did and I never take a life needlessly but when I need the meat, they are thanked for their sacrifice that we might thrive and I honor that animal by making use of every part, bit and hair or feather.
I also make an offering in their honor and burn sage and cedar so their spirit will be happy in that world.

This is the way of my people and it is my way.

Redhawk

Three miles north of my place, across Black Bear Creek, is the south edge of the Tall Grass Prarie.


The pheasant had been hunted to damn near extinction level during the First Depression (Great Depression)

With the pheasant went the turkey, quail, cotten tail, jack rabbit and white tail deer.

Deer were finally legal to hunt again in 1972 in my county.

I saw one mating pair of pheasant in 2015.

None since, but lots of pheasant  kills by bobcat and coyote.

Invasive or not, I'll take pheasant over pipe liners, frackers, water speculators or tax assessors.

I have grown up near a Pheasant "Preserve" where the richie rich would drive up to bag as many ditch chickens as they could on a plot of land that was poorly fenced.

My uncle worked for the neighbor who had a junk yard, and we would hunt out back of the junkyard for deer many seasons. Pheasants have been ruined for me by this because the little guys would just walk up to you. They were tame to humans! I could grab it by the neck and bag it if I wanted to but where is the sport in that?

It now brings me into a conundrum because where I live the Pheasants don't tend to survive the winter due to lack of habitat and an excess of predators. If I am hunting and find one, do I take it as an act of mercy and utilize what I can or allow it the low chance of facing a tough winter? I still roll this around in my head.