Formosa Pheasant Video

Very cool. I actually saw this about a month ago. The videos make me wonder why do our pheasant pops poorly in wooded areas in American when their natural habitat seems to include more wooded areas than ours do? Also in this pheasant in particular do their tails seem very short or is it just me?
 
quail hound said:
Very cool. I actually saw this about a month ago. The videos make me wonder why do our pheasant pops poorly in wooded areas in American when their natural habitat seems to include more wooded areas than ours do? Also in this pheasant in particular do their tails seem very short or is it just me?
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pheasants around the world roost in trees. They roost on the ground here because preditors on the ground are the "lesser" of the two evils compared to hauks and owls.

Yeah, their tails were short on a few of those roosters. I could only think this was because they have a earlier molt comparied to here:confused: Just a threory, though it makes little sence because roosters need their long tail feathers to impress those hens. --1pheas4
 
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1pheas4, great video, good show.

Those pheasants are almost identical in appearance to the average wild ringneck.
In a long monsoon or rainy season when pheasant tails drag the ground they will get shorter, they will grow longer during the dry season.

Two big takeaways I got from this video:

1. Formosa or Taiwan is on the Tropic of Cancer near the 24th parallel, that is even with Cuba on this side of the world, hot and humid. Kansas city is near the 39 and Houston, Texas is near the 30th, those are just frames of reference.
That old theory that says that pheasants will not hatch in a warm and humid climate will not hold up in court.
Note the abundance of green vegetation, that vegetation along with snails and insects provide all the mineral and calcium they need to survive.
We have a few wild pheasants in southeast Texas along the coast (rice country) hot and humid.
Quail Hound mentioned, in an earlier thread, the wild and expanding Mexicali pheasants on the California and Mexican border, that is warm to hot country those wild pheasants may have some Formosa pheasant genes.

2. The reporter on the video reported that these hens hatch two clutches of chicks. With a high chick mortality rate, that explains how the wild population can maintain and expand with all the predators.
 
Preston1 said:
1pheas4, great video, good show.
1. Formosa or Taiwan is on the Tropic of Cancer near the 24th parallel, that is even with Cuba on this side of the world, hot and humid. Kansas city is near the 39 and Houston, Texas is near the 30th, those are just frames of reference.
That old theory that says that pheasants will not hatch in a warm and humid climate will not hold up in court.
Note the abundance of green vegetation, that vegetation along with snails and insects provide all the mineral and calcium they need to survive.
We have a few wild pheasants in southeast Texas along the coast (rice country) hot and humid.
Quail Hound mentioned, in an earlier thread, the wild and expanding Mexicali pheasants on the California and Mexican border, that is warm to hot country those wild pheasants may have some Formosa pheasant genes.

2. The reporter on the video reported that these hens hatch two clutches of chicks. With a high chick mortality rate, that explains how the wild population can maintain and expand with all the predators.
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Great info Preston1. Thank you.

Do you have any ideas as to why pheasants don't thrive down state Illinois? They seem to be doing okay in southern areas but S. Illinois hasn't had any luck:confused: Any thoughts?

--1pheas4
 
Habitat and pollution? Possibly the weather? All I know is those are some beautiful pheasants and this isn't helping the off season blues. :D
 
Do you have any ideas as to why pheasants don't thrive down state Illinois? They seem to be doing okay in southern areas but S. Illinois hasn't had any luck:confused: Any thoughts?

--1pheas4[/QUOTE]

We all saw in the video of the wild Formosa pheasants that truly wild pheasants are genetically or are instinctively gifted with alertness. They naturally duck or crouch down when danger pops up, ground or aerial predators.

If Illinois DNR is releasing fat tame 30 or 40 generation in the pen (pen raised pheasants) in southern part of the state, the predator will just eat them before they can figure out out to survive and reproduce.

If you can get truly wild (wild-trapped) pheasants for that part of the state your chances for getting wild birds started are much better. I will always and only recommend F1 pen-raised pheasant (from wild-trapped parents) or pen raised pheasants from wilder strains of pheasants.

Find out from the IDNR on their pen raised pheasant stock, how many generations are they removed from the wild state. Or how many generation have the pheasants been in pens. And its not a good idea to shot the hens in controlled hunting or youth hunting areas because I am sure perfectly healthy wild hens (with wary and alert genes that could be past on) are often shot.

In the real wild world full of predators, wariness and alertness is naturally selected out, and only wariest and most alert live long enough to reproduce and past those wild genes on to the next generation.
But that is not the case after 20 or 30 generation of living in a pen, wildness is not selected out, the stupid ones also live long time and lay lots of eggs and reproduce and over they years they are easy to handle.
Good looking pheasant country in southern Illinois but only truly wild pheasants will survive there.

If wild pheasants can live in the Bootheel of Missouri, which is south of southern Illinois, wild pheasant can live in southern Illinois.
Forty years ago the Bianchi, the Persian and the Korean ringed-neck pheasant (the Korean is identical in appearance to the Chinese ringed-neck pheasant) (but are extremely predator wary and alert pheasants) were released in the southeast corner of Missouri as well in Texas and Oklahoma and therefore got wild pheasants started.
 
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I've seen our states pen birds at youth hunts. Just by looking at them I can say they're from old stock. Though I don't know this with certainty. I'll have to ask the head of our area IDNR.

From what I understand, here in Illinois the pheasants just stop at a certain point down state. One habitat restoration worker told me it's like they're on one side of the (north) highway, then on the south side they just dry up. It's very sudden for some reason:confused: ==1pheas4
 
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