Edward's Pheasant may be extinct in the wild
- Thread starter Surroundx
- Start date
Hopefully they aren't extinct in the wild, but is there a healthy population in captivity? If there is a captive population is there any hope of restoring wild populations, or would that be futile given hunting pressures and habitat destruction?
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
ISIS shows 76:62 within Europe, with 6 further animals not sexed. Elsewhere there are 15:10 (2 further unsexed). There are doubtless others unlisted, but I wonder how many (or rather how few) founder animals they all descend from.
"All captive specimens are descended from 15 birds shipped to France in 1923. There is a small population in Vietnam, but otherwise there may be none remaining in the wild."
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Pheas/BRKEdwards.html
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Pheas/BRKEdwards.html
Several Pheasant species in aviculture/captivity do suffer from inbreeding due to the low numbers of original founders. Evidently Edwards' is one of these. Inbreeding in pheasants sometimes manifests itself with twisted toes but I don't know if they suffer from this.
Lady Amherst's has a different problem, many strains are impure, due to past crossing with Golden Pheasant, sometimes very many generations ago.
Lady Amherst's has a different problem, many strains are impure, due to past crossing with Golden Pheasant, sometimes very many generations ago.
There are some pure-lines available thanks to some committed breeders, but again the amount of founders comes then into play then.