Partners for Fish and WildlifeFarmland Habitat Restoration Program

Dave PutnamU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

March 19, 2005

Do you want wild pheasants?

Wild Pheasant Reintroduction • Impact of game farm birds

– Studies on wild turkeys have demonstrated the futility of using game farm birds for reintroduction.

– It is like throwing a pass in football, three things can happen and two of them are bad.

» Joe Paterno

In the case of mixing farm reared and wild birds all of them are bad.

You can not get a huntable wild population of Game Birds from Pen Reared Birds.

• Game farm birds can nest and raise broods.

• They rarely persist into the fall.• The populations can not support

hunting.• They never regain the vigor of a

wild population. Even after 40 or 50 years.

• Wild Turkeys are the closest relative of Pheasants in Pennsylvania.

The Wild Turkey Experience• Wild turkeys were reported to be restored in

Pennsylvania by the PGC with game farm birds.

• About 7,000 game farm turkeys were stocked throughout Pennsylvania annually.

• They even made a move about it. “Wild” toms would fly into the pens and mate with the hens.

• Many turkey experts question the wildness of the toms that would fly into the pens.

• The movie contained a map of established turkey range.

Wild turkey populations expand at about 5 miles per year.• Wild birds walked from their original

stronghold in the south-central mountains to the north as the northern hardwood habitats improved.

• While many other suitable habitats were stocked annually, none of them established “wild populations”.

• Many populations would have started simultaneously if game farm birds could work.

Game Farm Turkeys from Pennsylvania were given to states throughout the country.• New York and Massachusetts

established flocks of turkeys from Pennsylvania game farm stock.

• If you can’t get a population of wild birds from birds of game farm origin what did they have in NY and MA???????

What about the other states that got PA birds??

• A survey of biologists in 44 of the the states that received birds from PA reported that only one population was ever started in an area that had no wild birds prior to stocking. Other states reported success, but the Game Farm birds were mixed with wild ones.

• That State was Michigan.

Michigan Case Study

• A study of the Michigan population sponsored by the NWTF and others concluded that the population has never regained the vigor of a truly wild population.

Michigan Case Study

• By the late 1950’s there was extensive evidence that game farm birds are inferior to wild birds in establishing populations.

• By the late 1970’s 331 of 354 restoration attempts by 23 states using 350,000 game farm birds had failed.

• In contrast, there were 685 successes out of 841 restoration attempts in 32 states using only 26,500 wild birds.

1979 NWTF article

• 30,000 wild-trapped turkeys have been released in 36 states

• Of about 1,200 releases about 1,000 were successful in establishing self-sustaining, lasting populations that are able to support hunting. Progeny from these releases has expanded to occupy more than 200,000 square miles of range.

1979 NWTF article

• The release of 400,000 pen-raised turkeys, a major portion of them of Pennsylvania Game farm origin resulted in establishment on 36 sites.

• The populations are of low quality and occupied about 9,000 square miles of range with 5,000 of those square miles in Michigan.

Pennsylvania Studies

• Wunz and Hayden banded 10,590 game farm turkeys in the 1970’s.

• Results followed similar studies. Banded game farm birds were 9 to 15 times more likely to be taken by hunters than wild birds.

Wild bird releases

• Minnesota - 30 wild birds released in 1971 - 1973 grew to 7,000 by 1979.

• Vermont – 31 wild birds released in 1970-71 grew to 8,000 birds by 1979, and were able to support a 3 week season with a 2 bird limit.

Disease Introduction

• Studies in Pennsylvania ( South Mountain) showed that when large releases of game farm turkeys were made on existing wild populations the total population declined.

The Bottom Line

• Game farm birds have their place, but they can have no positive impact on establishing a wild population and they can have a negative effect on wild birds.

Centre Hall Pheasant Study• 1006 Wild Trapped Pheasants were

Released.• Game Farm birds had been

released for the previous 14 years.• This was during a time when

Pennsylvania Pheasant hunters were killing a million birds a year.

Centre Hall Pheasant Study• A total of 1006 wild-trapped pheasants

were released in 1964-66.• Game Farm birds had been released for

the previous 14 years without success.• The area was kept open to hunting

throughout the study.• The population expanded and supported

hunting until the nationwide decline of pheasants in the 1980’s

Sechuan Pheasants

• All birds used in the study were Game Farm raised.

• The first few years of the study did not have any pure Sechuan Pheasants. Only 50 males were received from Michigan.

• Michigan?

Sechuan Pheasants

• The hypothesis that was tested was based on the presumption that the birds were good and if they didn’t survive, the habitat was bad.

• Some of the birds did survive and reproduce, but they followed the same dismal population model of other populations of game farm stock.

Sechuan Pheasants

• The study cost more than $2,000,000 and was doomed before it started.

• The scientific literature going back to the 1940’s is replete with information on the futility of establishing wild populations with Game Farm stock.

• A wild-trapped alternative would have made most of the work worthwhile.

You cannot get a huntable wild population of Game Birds from Pen Reared Birds.

• Game farm birds can nest and raise broods.

• They rarely persist into the fall.• The populations can not support

hunting.• They never regain the vigor of a

wild population. Even after 40 or 50 years.

California University Wild Pheasant Program

Why there and not here????

California University of Pennsylvania, incooperation with Pheasants Forever, thePennsylvania Game Commission, the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, the USDA-NaturalResources Conservation Service, DucksUnlimited, and the National Fish and WildlifeFoundation initiated a "Partners for Wildlife"program

Pike Run

• Nearly all landowners in the watershed were cooperators in the PGC Farm-Game program.

• Nearly all landowners were cooperative

• The area historically had a good wild pheasant population.

• All stocking of Game Farm birds by the PGC was halted in the area.

Pike Run

• All of the original habitat goals were achieved.

• There were some survivors of the stocking program that held over from year to year.

• There was early hope by some that survivors of the stockings could recover and build a wild population.

Wild Pheasant Project

We are working with the Biology Department of California University to implement a wild pheasant reintroduction project in the Pike Run Watershed.

Faculty, staff and volunteers from the University are working with the local chapter of Peasants Forever to determine if the habitat improvements in the Pike Run Watershed are sufficient to support a self-sustaining population of wild pheasants.

Birds are being obtained from South Dakota.• SD Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks

and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are capturing the birds and Cal U staff are transporting them back to Pennsylvania.

• The SW Region of the PGC is assisting is capturing 150 wild turkeys for the trade.

• We are proposing to get 200 birds per year for three years.

74 birds have been moved in the last month.

• 14 have been radio collared.• 6 have been confirmed dead, most

of them in the first day or two after release.

Pike Run

• The birds have gone to good cover and are staying near the release sites. Only one collared bird has left the area and it has settled down at its new location.

• Hard and soft releases have yielded the same results.

Standards for success

• To be successful, we will expect to see an expanding population with more than 30 birds per square mile after establishment.

What is a pheasant worth??

How Much??

• How much do you want wild pheasants here?

• Habitat alone is not the answer. • You can’t have the birds without

habitat, but you can not have a successful wild bird reintroduction if large numbers of Game Farm birds are still being released in the area.

In Conclusion

You can not get a wild population of Game Birds from Pen Reared Birds.

• The wild stock is far more adaptable than most people give them credit for.

• It is not just genetics.• There are behavior factors that

must be passed on from wild birds.• The best judge of habitat suitability

is the birds.

Thank You for Coming