Pheasant habitat in China?

M

Moose-head

New member
Pheasant were originally introduced from China. I know what I think good habitat for pheasant looks like, but I donâ??t imagine that that is what it looked like in China several hundred/thousand years ago. Anybody know what the habitat is like in the region that ring necks came from?
 
Moose-Head, they have several variations of ring-necks over there in China (Prince of Wales, Mongolian, Tarim, Strauch, Kweichow, Formosan, Manchurian, Kobdo, Chinese, Rion Cauchasian, and more). Most of these breeds are here in the U.S. but most under different names. When released here in the U.S. they (the few survivors) adapt to the habitat and roosting/nesting behaviors of our (U.S.) wild ring-necked pheasants, not habitat similar to habitat in China such as trees/forests/mountains, etc.

In China each breed has a habitat that differs from the next. There's a great book on this subject from William Beebe, called A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS. This author goes into some detail on each "sub-species" ring-neck and ornamental pheasants. :)--1pheas4
 
Moose-head said:
Pheasant were originally introduced from China. I know what I think good habitat for pheasant looks like, but I don’t imagine that that is what it looked like in China several hundred/thousand years ago. Anybody know what the habitat is like in the region that ring necks came from?
Click to expand...

From what I have read is that the ringneck pheasants, including various subspecies, are all over China, crop land, rice fields, swamp land hill and valleys etc..

Look carefully at the photo below, it is a wild Strauchi Pheasant (Sichuan pheasant) photo taken in the Sichuan province of China. The Sichuan pheasant was also released in Michigan and Oregon. Note this wild rooster has identical markings of the ringneck but no white ring. That is not a mutation, the size of the ring is naturally reduced as wild pheasants moved into southern China, areas with more hills trees and predators. This probably happened thousands and thousands of years ago.
Read pages 266 and 267 of Jean Delacour's book "The Pheasants of the World". The intermediary between between the subspecies, in other word some of ringneck pheasants first brought to America may already have Sichuan or Strauchi pheasant genes, because in the natural wild in China the two subspecies naturally merge.
The Michigan people were on the right track with the Sichuan. The old stale tame inbreed pen-raised birds need a strong dose of new wild blood.
Note the yellow iris of sichuan pheasants both hens and roosters a sign of true wild genes.
Note also in the photo, no corn fields.
http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=228616&=1258346624

More back ground on the Sichuan release in Oregon:
http:www.americanfieldguide.com/programs/ofg/segments/view/1137
 
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Forget Dove hunting in Argentina!!

Who's up for a pheasant hunting trip to China?!?

UGuide, do you think you could set us up with some nice "private" land over there?
 
I guide a group of tobacco buyers from China every year. It's crazy. Almost to a person, they have never fired and/or seen a gun. After we get them "trained" with some sporting clays we go and do a hunt. A pheasant hunt, and it's always the first pheasant any of them have ever killed. We've had several get them mounted to take back home to China
 
Good info. Are pheasants hunted in China? Can you hunt in China?
 
I will have to ask my brother about hunting in China. He spent six months there a couple of years back on a study abroad program.
 
Preston1 said:
From what I have read is that the ringneck pheasants, including various subspecies, are all over China, crop land, rice fields, swamp land hill and valleys etc..
http://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=228616&=1258346624
More back ground on the Sichuan release in Oregon:
http:www.americanfieldguide.com/programs/ofg/segments/view/1137
Click to expand...

Great post Preston1! Love the picture and video. That's one of my favorate pheasants next to the Afgan Whitewing. If you have anymore info/photos/videos on the sichuan please email me in my Personal Email. Thanks again!:10sign:
 
Here's what my brother had to say about seeing any hunting in China.

"No, I remember seeing a ton of fishing everywhere we went, but never any hunting at all. I don't know what firearms laws are like in China, but I imagine they're incredibly restrictive, so I doubt there's much hunting at all. At least outside of the super wealthy or highly ranked government officials."
 
Utube pheasant hunting in China with sling shots, this is actually poaching because I don't think they can hunt. These guys are excellent shots with there wrist rockets.
 
I don't know about China but. My uncle was in S Korea during the war. He told stories of all the Ring Necks in the areas he was at. The Koreans did not really hunt pheasants but trapped them one way or another quite successfully. You could buy cleaned or whole pheasants at any market in the countryside.
My uncle was a die hard pheasant hunter from S MN, so he really enjoyed the Roosters crowing and seeing tons of wild birds.
 
Ghengis Khan

Ghengis Khan the Mongol warrior planted fields of millet for pheasant habitat. I think he was the first PF regional biologist.
 
niceshot said:
Ghengis Khan the Mongol warrior planted fields of millet for pheasant habitat. I think he was the first PF regional biologist.
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Yep! and old Ghengis hunted pheasants with his trusty Lab and Mossberg pump shotgun.:):confused::eek:
 
My uncle Rodger, a SD boy, led a squadron of P-51s against the Japanese in China during WWII.

On days when they couldn't fly and hunt Japanese, they hunted pheasants using short barreled shotguns which the military had plenty of. No license, no limit hunting...I mean, who was going to ask them for licenses?

He said that pheasants were everywhere, and is was easy for he and a few buddies to borrow a Jeep and shoot a few dozen pheasants. They had no way to get them cooked, so gave them to the locals.

He said he wouldn't have eaten them anyway as they were all full of lice.

Aunt Lucy still lives in Sioux Falls

picture.php
 
jnormanh said:
He said he wouldn't have eaten them anyway as they were all full of lice.
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Sounds like they must of had a wet year in that area of China, or those birds were in very damp habitat were they couldn't dust themselves to remove the little guys.:)
 
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