Pheasant - Invasive Species or Valuable Game Bird?

When those who condemn start buying licenses to support such game & its habitat their words won't fall upon a listing audience. Up until they do.
"Get to walking Chumley's !! "
 
jdscholer I'am from Pa when I was growing up (60s +70s) we were loaded with birds. I too think the Game Commision here stocked infected birds the population crashed in a couple years.At that time no major changes in farming methods from years before.The only thing thats certain is no government agency will ever admit to making a mistake.
 
We used to have a very successful wild bird population. Every season we killed probably 98% of the roosters, (hens are off limits). The next year we would have another crop of new roosters and hens, sometimes even two hatches.

We've always had high predator populations; hawks, skunks, coons, coyotes, feral cats, etc.. That hasn't changed. Always had and still have pretty vast areas of habitat and refuges with no farming; that hasn't changed.

What has changed is that for several years now the organizations that stock birds have been stocking birds that are huge, dumb, chicken-like creatures that don't seem able to survive in the wild. You may see pheasants in residential areas where no hunting is possible, but you seldom see them in wild areas where they used to be. Wild hens are pretty much non-existent, and they have never been legal to shoot.

I've lived in this area all my life, and it seems that more stocking = less pheasants. And believe me, this isn't a popular theory to present to most folks who belong to Pheasants Unlimited. jd
 
Most probably in which State you would find the game bird! If the general public is against all game hunting, they would consider the animals' safety. If it is in a State that protects its natural species, and trains its youth to respect the Wildlife and Fisheries' goals of controlling the species for future hunters, the Pheasant would be a valuable game bird. Always great in a Dutch Oven with cut potatoes, carrots and celery!
 
Hen pheasants do practice egg dumping in other bird's nests. I've found pheasant eggs in mallard nests and seen grouse and partridge raising pheasant chicks. So yes they do interact with native species except the Hungarian partridge weren't native species but the greater prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse were. I don't think pheasant egg dumping is going to wipe out healthy populations of chickens or sharp-tails but as the article suggests they could create problems for remnant populations http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/documents/R2ES/LitCited/LPC_2012/Westemeier_et_al_1998.pdf
 
I thought there would be a few more posts on this subject but evidentially I was wrong. Judge Denny released the first pheasants in Oregon back in 1882 and 1884 in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. These were birds he obtained from China, most likely wild birds. The birds took off and with the help of man colonized just about every habitat available that offered what they needed for survival and reproduction.

The question remains; Are they or aren’t they an invasive species? Basically an invasive species has negative effects upon environment, economy or health. I’m sure the definition can be expanded but this will do for me for now. Other than my previous post concerning egg dumping I believe any bad effects are far outweighed by the good. Pheasants bring in a lot of money to those individuals and states where there are lots of wild birds. SD’s major incomes come from Ag and Tourism. I’m guessing pheasant hunting would fall under tourism. In years where the counts indicate the pheasant numbers are good there is a lot of great pheasant hunting to be had on public and private land. Also there is the hunting preserve industry which is from Sept 1 to March 31st.

With this said I seriously can’t think of a reason the ring-neck can be considered an evasive species they are a very valuable introduced game bird.
 
Phesant Invase species or aluable game bird

They are invasive species. They brought them in as most of the native grouse were hunted out. Our birds were just too tame.
Phesants don't thrive here because of Chiggars, so I'm told.
We could use some game bird. The coyotes have cleaned out or run off the turkeys and quail and deer.
If Wildlife Resources would let me I would release quail and feed them to just have them around.
There might be some hope for their survival as WhiporWills can still be heard.
Coyotes have taken most of the cats and snakes have virtually disappeared from some cause.
We have some kind of grouse around here as Daughter and others have seen them but I can't match them to anything I know. they are about half as big as a turkey.
If there is a strain of Pheasants that will tolerate Chiggars I would gladly do paperwork to release some, if they will let us.
 
As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, it was rare to be outside and not hear a Bobwhite Quail. Many times you'd also hear Rooster Pheasants cackling. While Pheasants have always been mostly a "give and take" proposition when it came to stocking, there seemed to be a few birds that would make it thru and was always a small "wild" population. After the 1970's that seemed to change. I too think it had to do with the game farm birds evolving into domestic chickens. Few years back Wisconsin traded grouse for wild birds(similar to it's successful Wild Turkey reintroduction) and those seem to do much better with the proper habitat. Problem was, they only really survived on private land with limited hunter access. Nowadays tho, even tho Bobwhites were once numerous and native here, and folks hunted them, there are very few left in the wild. Now if you hear a Bobwhite call in the morning or evening, it's like sighting a albino deer. I wonder why there is no program to restock or re-establish quail in the state, even tho the cost to raise them is much less and the local habitat/weather is much more conducive to them.
 
buck460XVR,
Last year I shot my first Bob White in the Kettle Moraine forest 40 miles west of Milwaukee.

Restocking would be nice but I think the money is in the colorful pheasant.
The DNR tells me all stocked birds don't survive till spring. Of course I have been out and found them in the wild in May/June.
 
Blindstitch....I grew up hunting Quail with my grandpa. He always swore by only taking a coupla birds from each covey in order for there to be birds there the next year. His philosophy has stuck with me and the two points my dog took on quail last year flushed without me taking a shot. While the money may be in the more colorful pheasant, it will always be give and take proposition here at a loss of sportsman's dollars. Quail would at least have a chance to survive and prosper. Here is where the pheasant is an invasive species, when wildlife officials ignore producing habitat and breeding stock for a native species in favor for a non-native species that will most likely not survive longer than two weeks in the wild, just because they are prettier. The points my dogs take on quail are every bit as pretty as the points they make on Pheasants. The hunt is every bit as satisfying and the memories every bit as good.
 
In much of the southern US, a large problem for the bobwhite quail population is the fire ant. That's true for other ground-nest species of birds as well. Then you can add in feral house cats as well as the "usual" predators.
 
I thought there would be a few more posts on this subject but evidentially I was wrong. Judge Denny released the first pheasants in Oregon back in 1882 and 1884 in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. These were birds he obtained from China, most likely wild birds. The birds took off and with the help of man colonized just about every habitat available that offered what they needed for survival and reproduction.
Click to expand...

Actually, 1881 were the first released. 1882 was the second batch.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8444
 
Talk about an invasive species, feral house cats. That has to be one of the toughest predators in the woodland/farmland areas. You get up in the morning to check your fox traps and it is 5 degrees with a light snow and the only tracks you see are house cat.
 
In much of the southern US, a large problem for the bobwhite quail population is the fire ant. That's true for other ground-nest species of birds as well. Then you can add in feral house cats as well as the "usual" predators.
Click to expand...

While a factor, Georgia Wildlife says:
REASONS FOR THE QUAIL DECLINE

Intensification of agriculture and forestry coupled with increased urbanization are the primary factors responsible for the decline in bobwhite quail and a number of other early successional wildlife species.
Click to expand...
(http://www.georgiawildlife.com/site...ions/FactSheets/Bobwhite Quail Fact Sheet.pdf)

Urban sprawl, "managed" (i.e. dead) forests, increased agriculture - loss of habitat and introduction of poisons

Of course, being a ground nester in the South also means intense predation from ants to coyotes, skunks, snakes, etc..............

The huge plantations in S. GA do well, but they manage their land accordingly as those folks who partake typically spend $1K per day in fees.
 
buck460XVR,

I totally agree. I have become addicted to pheasant hunting but would prefer grouse. If this deer season sucks as bad as last year I will be bringing my shotgun to deer camp near Hayward. Last year I saw 8-12 grouse per day.
 
I have discovered that the feral cats are not bulletproof. Never heard of chiggers causing a problem for pheasants. one of the worst thingtvs for quail is a farmer with a dozer (out go the brushy fence rows), and modern farming, where grain doesn't get lost or left behind much. Back when I was young and everyone raised crops and we picked a lot of it with a two row corn picker, if a field was 5 acres or more it had corn. Now it is mostly pasture which doesn't feed many quail.
 
Maybe it depends on where you live. I don't ever remember Pennsylvania having a enough quail to make them worth hunting. Even the wild pheasants could not survive in the grouse habitat we have here. Pheasants never really displaced anything here and they did not destroy the area like deer do.
 
Simply depends on one's definition of "invasive" - according to their definition, a species must be detrimental to be invasive. I would tend to disagree. Invasive has a pretty set, specific, defined meaning - it means it invades. Which in practical terms, it means that the species is non-native, yet when introduced, eventually becomes widespread and successful. Pheasants certainly fit that description. Therefore they are invasive, seems to me. They are also beneficial, seems to me (and delicious). Therefore the question itself sets up an illogical false dichotomy. They are in fact both (invasive and valuable game bird).
 
In the 90's I used to hunt quail in Mexico. You could literally not shoot too many. Why? Inefficient farming which knocked down about 25% of the millet and other seed crops.

I wish the government would "buy" that last row of crops up against the fence from farmers and just let it sit there for the quail.
 
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