Pheasant - Invasive Species or Valuable Game Bird?

[Yankee]

Pheasants are bread&butter cash crop for most state wildlife agencies. They better be careful.

I really agree with this, $$ seems to run a lot of things, including WLF's in most states.

The second point/question I wanted to make/ask, is this "at what point do we consider an introduced species native to an area?" Being that the birds were introduced sometime around the 1880's isn't it sufficient to assume that enough natural predators have emerged over the last 135 years to balance out the population? I guess the point i'm trying to make is that even though the bird was introduced, hasn't it developed a niche in the ecosystem to where it is now considered part of it?

 

[BRITTMAN]

Weather and farming practices are really the pheasants greatest friend and biggest enemy.

If habitat conditions are right and hens coming into nesting season healthy ... populations can explode. A hen pheasant is a determined bird in bringing off a health brood.