A study of an unmanaged pheasant population at Brownsea Island, Dorset, England.

Abstract

Brownsea Island has a small pheasant population which survives from the pre-1930 period when pheasants were managed for shooting. Since then a small population has maintained itself in the absence of the usual management practices such as artificial rearing, winter feeding, shooting and predator control. This situation offers a unique opportunity for studying those aspects of the natural population dynamics that are often obscured on keepered estates. This study area has other advantages. Comparative isolation is provided by 0.5 - 2.0 km of water separating Brownsea from adjacent islands and the mainland, and although a great variety of habitat types occur, they do not undergo violent changes as on agricultural land and thus provide good opportunities to investigate habitat selection.

The initial objectives were to determine

l. the size of the breeding population

2. breeding success

3. population turnover.

Supporting data from known individuals were obtained from observation on pheasants trapped and back tabbed in winter. Further investigations, currently in progress, centre on the pheasants' diet and how habitat selection may be influenced by their feeding requirements.