Flight characteristics of three strains of hand-reared common pheasants.

Abstract

In the United Kingdom there has been a great deal of concern over the potential impact of rearing on the flight characteristics of pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) during driven shooting. Numerous 'strains' of pheasants have been released over the last few years and some are purported to be superior flyers. We monitored flight characteristics of three strains of pheasant found in the UK using controlled releases to assess the genetic basis of this question. We selected a standard gamefarm strain of pheasant. a recently imported ' American' strain, and a strain derived in the early 1990s from wild 'Fen' stock (Fenlands of England) for which smaller size was selected to be used as breeding stock over 4 years. We reared the birds together, under identical conditions, to control for rearing effects on flight performance. At age 17 weeks we made morphological measurements of each bird just prior to flight testing. We allowed each bird to flush individually from a standard point between two parallel fences in field. A video camera recorded the initial flight, which we used to measure take-off angle, while observers monitored total time wings were flapped before gliding. The strains differed in body weight for both females (P = 0.002) and males (P <0.001), however only females differed for tarsus length (P = 0.001), and neither sex differed for wing length and wing area. All of the morphological measurements were positively correlated. Analysis of covariance revealed that strain, sex, and body weight to wing area ratio were not related to take-off angle. Only body weight to wing area ratio was significant for explaining flap time (P = 0.03). Take-off angle and flap-time were positively correlated (P = 0.004). The data suggests that when pheasants flush under controlled conditions then strain is not a good predictor of initial flight performance. This occurs despite the differences among strains in morphology and potential wing load characteristics. The anecdotal observations of superior flying strains of pheasants must then be related to some other factors which may or may not be genetically controlled at the strain level.