Things aren’t looking good for wild pheasants in California, where populations of the colorful game birds have fallen to less than 10 percent of what they were in the late 1990s. With pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) hunting season opening Saturday, state officials note populations of the bird have fallen dramatically over the past 19 years. Hunters reported shooting 4,828 pheasant roosters in 1998 on public lands in the Central Valley. But that number fell to 461 last year, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The state keeps track of pheasant numbers through hunting “harvest” reports.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife, Pheasants Forever and the U.S. Geological Survey are studying what has led to a decline in pheasants. Ring-necked pheasant are not native to California, but were brought into the state and the rest of the country from Asia during the 1800s. The birds thrived in the state until profound changes in agricultural and land-use practices in the 1980s and '90s led to their decline, according to the state. Pheasant chicks feed on insects, but intensive insecticide use reduces available food for the young birds. As if all that wasn’t enough to decimate pheasants, California’s five-year drought further contributed to their decline, he said. Lack of water means a lack of bugs, which chicks eat.
Source: Damon Arthur, Record Searchlight, Published Nov. 6, 2017
http://www.redding.com/story/news/2017/11/06/wild-pheasants-disappearin…
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