Survival of Ring-Necked Pheasants Released on a Wisconsin Shooting Preserve

Of 2,386 banded ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) released under the gun and shot on a private, 1,942-acre shooting preserve in southeastern Wisconsin, 84 percent were bagged less than 1/4 mile and 95 percent less than 1 mile from their release sites. Preserve hunters harvested 50 percent of 5,441 pheasants stocked during 3 years. Each spring, about 6 percent of the releases appar- ently survived on the preserve, and 2 percent off the area, within 2 miles of the release sites. Of 93 birds bagged by outside hunters within 1.5 miles of the release area, 20 percent were preserve releases. In 3 years, 702 dead pheasants were found on the preserve. Length of time between release and death was fixed for 220 remains; 65 percent had died within 1 week of release. A calculated disappearance rate showed a total hunting loss, plus nonhunting losses of the first 2 weeks after release, of 83 percent. The rate of loss to nonhunting factors declined after 12 weeks to a stable biweekly rate which, if projected, resulted in a total annual loss of 54 percent. Of 226 known-cause deaths, release shock was blamed for 28 percent, shot wounds and predation for 29 and 42 percent, respectively. Feral cats (Felis domestica), Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii), and foxes (Vulpes fulva and Urocyon cinereoargenteus) were major predators. Concentrations of newly released, pen-reared birds probably aggravated predation. Total nonhunting mortality was not fixed, but apparently was responsible, rather than egress, for the postrelease disappearance of most pheasants.