Tragopan 1314

TRAGOPAN
Newsletter of the
WPA/BirdLife/Species Survival Commission
Pheasant Specialist Group

Issue 13/14 March 2001

Contents
From the Chairman p2
Project Roundup p3
Other News p5
Research reports p8
Sclaters Monal (Han Lianxian) p15
Sclaters Monal (Rimlinger) p17
Cheer Pheasant (Kalsi) p20
Palawan Peacock Pheasant (Lee) p26
Reevess Pheasant (Zhengwang) p30
Tibetan Eared Pheasant (Lu Xin) p33
Narayan Sarovar, India (Gokula) p34
Pheasant management (Pandey) p37

Editorial
This is a bumper edition of Tragopan due to
the non-appearance of Tragopan 13. I hope it
is worth the wait. The edition runs to some 40
pages which is great. There are certainly more
full-length papers/reports than have appeared
in previous Tragopans. I still feel, however,
that we are missing important news from some
quarters. If you have any project news, requests
for information, grants information or any
other news, please get in touch. If anyone has
illustrations of pheasants they would like to
include in Tragopan, please send them to me.
Thanks to Dr Varadarajan Gokula for the
lovely drawings and to Peter Garson for his
invaluable technical assistance and proof-
reading. The Dept of Agricultural and
Environmental Science, University of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne reproduced and
distributed Tragopan. Tragopan is available at
web address: http://www.gct.org.uk/psg

Stuart Marsden. Department of
Environmental and Geographical Sciences,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester
Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK.
tel: ++ 44 161 247 6215
fax: ++ 44 161 247 6318
email: s.marsden@mmu.ac.uk

Tragopan Number 13/14 2

From the Chairman

First I must apologise to all PSG members and
subscribers for the long wait since you received
Tragopan 12 in March 2000. My regular workload,
together with the completion of the new edition of
the Action Plan and preparations for the WPA
Symposium in Nepal conspired to occupy more than
all the available time in the summer. Thanks to
Stuart Marsden and all the authors contributing to
this double issue, which again provides abundant
evidence of continuing hard work by many people in
the cause of pheasant conservation.

And so after a flurry of last minute editing in J une-
J uly by Richard Fuller and me, the Action Plan for
2000-04 was dispatched to the printers by IUCN,
and 300 copies arrived in my office in December.
We achieved one of our key objectives in agreeing
the texts for the threatened species accounts (and the
threat categories of all species) with the team at
BirdLife International in Cambridge who were at the
same time completing Threatened Birds of the
World (successor to Birds to Watch 2).

This was an important achievement, and not only
because it illustrates close co-operation between the
PSG as a taxon-orientated body and BirdLife as a
global geographical partnership. Both BirdLife and
WPA now have a Memorandum of Understanding
with SSC. Together they make BirdLife the body
responsible for maintaining the Red List for all
birds, whilst anticipating that the five Specialist
Groups should operate with the help of WPA, and be
fully involved in any Red List revisions.
Remembering that WPA employed Richard Fuller to
edit three of the Galliformes Action Plans during
1999-2000, the new edition for pheasants is proof
that these arrangements are already working.

Now all we have to do is plan and carry forward the
new set of 25 projects outlined in the Action Plan.
Our members and others are currently running a
good number of projects with some support from
WPA. With Philip McGowan joining them as
Conservation Director from 1 April 2001, I hope
their capacity to support our efforts for pheasant
conservation world wide will continue to grow. In
any case please keep sending in the project proposal
forms for screening and endorsement: only then will
we be helping you to seek funds to carry out the
project!

The WPA Symposium in Nepal in September 2000
marked a return to that country via five others in
Asia since the first WPA Pheasant Symposium there
in 1979: a handful of people even made it to both
events! The superb organisation owed a great deal to
Hem Sagar Baral (Bird Conservation Nepal),
Meena J oshi (King Mahendra Trust for Nature
Conservation) and Nicola Chalmers-Watson (WPA).
But no symposium is worthwhile without
enthusiastic participants, and these we saw in
abundance from many different Asian countries, in
many cases thanks to sponsorship from WPA. Our
established pattern of keeping formal talks to a
minimum whilst allowing as much time as possible
for discussions over posters seemed to work well
again. Thereby we achieved our customary level of
informality, allowing everyone to have their say!

Finally, I want to thank two members of the PSG
Core Committee who have stood down recently, for
their great support. Mike Cook, who must rank as
one of the most successful and expert pheasant
aviculturalists in UK, represented the many private
individuals involved in conservation breeding with
great vigour right from J une 1993 when the PSG
came into existence. In doing so, he made sure that
our deliberations had a proper balance. Nicola
Chalmers-Watson joined the Core Committee when
she was appointed as administrator for WPA in
1997, but she has now sought employment
elsewhere. She was a great help in oiling the cogs
that connect WPA and the PSG, and indeed in
considerably increasing the rate at which they now
turn to the advantage of all of us, and the pheasants
we aim to conserve!

We are extremely fortunate to have attracted J ohn
Corder to the committee in place of Mike Cook.
J ohn and his wife Pat organised the wonderful WPA
International Symposium in Malaysia in 1997. They
keep and keenly observe peacock-pheasants in
particular, and have a long association with
Malaysia.

Peter Garson Department of Agricultural &
Environmental Science, King George VI Building,
University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1
7RU, U.K. Tel: ++44 191 222 6674/6268
Fax: ++44 191 222 5228
Email: peter.garson@ncl.ac.uk


Project round-up

Pakistan Galliformes Project

The Pakistan Galliformes Project, directed by Rab
Nawaz (WWF-Pakistan, Abbottabad) involved
repeated surveys of western tragopan Tragopan
melanocephalus, koklass Pucrasia macrolopha
and Himalayan monal Lophophorus impejanus
populations in six areas in Hazara Forest Division,
NW Frontier Province, Pakistan during 1995-99.
This work was funded by UNDP in collaboration
with WPA-Pakistan and the Wildlife Department of
NWFP. Fieldwork confirmed that there is a large
concentration of western tragopan in the Palas
Valley, Indus Kohistan, wintering close to
permanent villages even in relatively mild winters.
A resolution was past at the WPA International
Symposium on Galliformes (Nepal, September
2000) that the area should be proposed to
UNESCO as a World Heritage Site or Man and
Biosphere Reserve.

Temmincks Tragopan, India

In India, thanks to support from WPA and Stiftung
Avifauna Protecta, Dipankar Ghose (Calcutta
University) has been able to return to West Siang
and Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve in NW
Arunachal Pradesh and expects to complete his
study of population status, habitat distribution and
human disturbance of Temmincks tragopan
Tragopan temminckii in J une 2001.

Western Ghats junglefowl study

K.J . Peeyuskutty (Bombay Natural History Society)
is continuing his studies of grey junglefowl Gallus
sonneratii in the Western Ghats in south India, as
part of a larger study of bird communities on which
he is now employed. Until summer 2000 his work
was centred on Periyar Tiger Reserve, where he
had live-trapped and banded three females, found
and characterised both nests and roosting sites, and
collected faeces for diet analysis.

Reevess Pheasant, China

Zhang Zhengwang (Beijing Normal University) has
been awarded a research grant from the China
National Natural Science Foundation that will
enable him to extend his studies of space use and
habitat selection in Reeves's pheasant Syrmaticus
reevesii until 2003; his initial three year project on
this, funded by WPA, is scheduled to end in 2002
(see also p. 30).

Tibetan eared-pheasants tagged

During the 2000 study season Lu Xin (Wuhan
Univ., Hebei) marked a total of 60 adults and
subadults of Crossoptilon harmani in Tibet,
China. Based on the marked birds, including those
marked in the previous year, many data on
behavioural ecology were collected. He also
succeeded in locating 12 nests and marked 6
chicks. Interestingly he found that two females that
paired with two different males laid their eggs in
the same nest so that the combined clutch size
reached 19 eggs. This project is funded by the
China National Natural Science Foundation and
WPA (see also p. 33).

Sclater's Monal in Yunnan

Han Lianxian (Southwestern Forestry University,
Kunming) has been awarded a research grant from
the Yunnan Province Natural Science Foundation
to extend his work on the status and conservation of
Sclater's monal Lophophorus sclateri in western
Yunnan, China until 2002; his original project,
funded by WPA, is scheduled to end this year (see
also p. 15).

Bulwers Pheasant, Borneo

J ohn Rowden (Wildlife Conservation Society,
USA) found no trace of Bulwers pheasant
Lophura bulweri during his return visit to Kayan
Mentarang N.P. in NE Kalimantan, Indonesia
(Borneo) during December 1999-J anuary 2000.
The rains were late, changing fruiting patterns of
the plants that may provide food for this pheasant,
which has been suggested to be somewhat nomadic
before. He now is hoping to obtain permission to
radio-tag some individuals in Sarawak, East
Malaysia (Borneo) in J uly 2001, so that he can
then track their movements over long periods. This
project was funded by the Species Survival Fund.

Westrag 2000


Westrag 2000, a WPA-funded project started in
1998, aims to bring western tragopan Tragopan
melanocephalus into captivity in Pakistan. Owen
J oiner from UK oversaw the construction of a suite
of large aviaries above Shinkiari, near Mansehra in
NWFP during 1999, and made several attempts to
live-trap birds in 2000. During early 2000, Tanveer
Malik of the NWFP Wildlife Department received
avicultural training in UK. All trapping attempts
were unsuccessful, despite changing tactics and
making field visits at different seasons. The aviary
facilities have been handed over to the Wildlife
Department and the project will restart if and when
tragopans are obtained by their staff.
Western Tragopan research

Shahid Bashir (Aligarh Muslim University) is now
undertaking his third and final season of detailed
work on annual changes in habitat use and the
calling behaviour of western tragopan Tragopan
melanocephalus in the Specka forests of Chamba,
Himachal Pradesh, India. During his fieldwork in
2000, he encountered 69 birds whilst walking trails
and heard dawn calls in spring from a minimum of
41 males spread across eight locations within the
study area. This project is funded by WPA.

Western Tragopan by Dr Varadarajan Gokula

Other news


More IUCN guidelines

The recently approved IUCN guidelines for the
placement of confiscated animals are now available
on the SSC website at:
http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/siteindx.htm

Golden pheasant/Lady Amherst's
pheasant hybrids in Guizhou

In recent years, Li Zhu-mei (Guizhou Institute of
Biology) has found three cases of hybridisation
between golden pheasant Chrysolophus pictus
and Lady Amherst's pheasant Chrysolophus
amherstiae in the wild in Guizhou, China. One
was taken as a specimen. The specimen is in the
collection of an amateur [bird/pheasant collector] in
the Guiyang area, who bought it in 1995 from a
peasant on the Shuicheng-Anshun road (west of
Guiyang).

The two live birds were found in March-May 1995
in Qingchi in J insha county (about 200 km NW of
Guiyang) and are now at the Guizhou Wildlife
Protection Centre. They are both hatched in 1998,
so that by August 1999 they were one-year sub-
adults and by May 2000 they had become adults.
Such hybridisation was first reported by Deng
Qixiang (1974) in Xuyong county, Sichuan, with
five more cases reported from Dayi county, Sichuan
(He J ialu et al. 1993). The two live birds were
found in J insha which borders on Xuyong and
Gulin counties in Sichuan, while the dead specimen
was found further south. They were found on the
western edge of the golden pheasant's range and
eastern edge of Lady Amherst's. According to
recent research the two species inhabit similar
habitats in SW Guizhou and NW Guangxi, so they
may also hybridise there.

Kindly translated by Michael Rank from the
Newsletter of the Chinese Ornithological Society
9(1), June 2000.

Forktail Leica Award 2000

The Oriental Bird Club has awarded its Forktail
Leica Award to Dr Anwaruddin Choudhury (Rhino
Foundation, Guwahati, Assam) to study the
threatened Hume's Pheasant Syrmaticus humiae
in north-east India from J anuary to December
2001. The aims are to find out the current
distribution, status and threats to the species in
north-east India, especially in Nagaland, Manipur
and Mizoram. A hitherto unsurveyed area, Mt
Saramati in Nagaland which is reputedly a
stronghold for some other threatened species
including Blyth's Tragopan Tragopan blythii, will
also be surveyed.

WPA Photo CD

J ohn Corder has just completed a CD which holds
over 900 images of Galliformes. Many of these
have been donated to WPA over the years for
publication in annual reviews and newsletters. They
include originals by Ken Fink, Keith & J ean
Howman, Gary Robbins, and many others. In
addition, there are also two video clips, amounting
to more than 16 minutes of breeding
displays by captive and wild pheasants in Malaysia
and there is a PowerPoint presentation about WPA
which users might like to modify for their own use.
The CD is only readable on a PC, preferably with
Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000.

The CD costs 15 and can be ordered directly from
WPA HQ c/o J ill Court, WPA affice, P.O. Box 5,
Lower Basildon, Reading RG8 9PF. Cheques
should be made payable to WPA. All proceeds will
be used to finance the WPA project on the
conservation genetics of Galliformes being
undertaken by Ettore Randi (INFS, Bologna, Italy).
In its first year, this project has already obtained
important results relating to the Imperial and
Vietnamese Pheasants (see p. 9).

Red junglefowl genetics

Interest continues in trying to establish the extent of
genetic introgression of domestic fowl genes into
wild populations of red junglefowl Gallus gallus.
This clearly has importance in protecting the
natural genetic diversity of junglefowl, not least as
a source of novel genes for use in the poultry
industry world wide. Efforts are being made to look
at the supposedly diagnostic wild characters (dark
legs and an eclipse plumage in males, no combs in
females) in the field and captive collections in
India and Nepal. There are also feral junglefowl
populations of uncertain origin and purity on a
number of Pacific Islands (Vanuatu, Solomons).
Kimberley Cheng (University
of British Columbia, Canada)


and others are hoping to obtain samples from these
and SE Asian mainland populations in order to
sequence DNA and produce a molecular
phylogeny, thereby also reconstructing the
historical spread of these populations outside the
native range for the species. Meanwhile Lehr
Brisbin (University of Georgia, USA) has crossed
his putative pure males, originating from northern
India in the 1960s, with domestic fowl females and
is finding a small comb to be retained in the hybrid
females even after two back-crosses with his males.
Thus presence of combs in females in the wild
might well indicate past introgression.

Aviculture workshop

Gary Robbins and J ohn Corder (WPA, UK) are
scheduled to run a workshop in early April 2001 on
avicultural techniques, in collaboration with the
Central Zoo Authority of India. It is hoped that 12-
16 zoo and wildlife staff from the Forest
Departments of the northern states will attend.

Pipar project news

For over 20 years WPA has supported a project at
Pipar, north of Pokhara in Nepal. This has involved
the provision of a local guard to protect the
remarkably pristine forest reserve from poachers, as
well as the support of several local schools,
particularly in environmental education. Repeated
surveys of satyr tragopan Tragopan satyra and
koklass Pucrasia macrolopha populations in the
reserve indicate stable populations. An opportunity
was taken to review progress and plan for the future
of this project, during a special workshop at the
WPA International Symposium on Galliformes in
September 2000. Hem Baral (Bird Conservation
Nepal) is currently working on a comprehensive
conservation plan for Pipar, and a survey of
wildlife populations and habitats in the Santal area
adjacent to the existing reserve is planned for May
2001.

Chinese scientist visits UK

Ding Chang-qing (Institute of Zoology, Beijing)
was able to spend two months training in DNA
analysis techniques with Koon Wah Fok
(Nottingham University, UK) at the end of 2000,
thanks to the provision of his airfare by British
Airways Assisting Conservation through WPA.
Koon Wah Foks Ph.D. project is concerned with
resolving the phylogeny of the eared-pheasants
Crossoptilon using several sources of DNA
sequence data, as well as developing the capability
to determine parentage (and therefore the mating
system) of Tibetan eared-pheasant C. harmani,
and golden pheasant Chrysolophus pictus.

Green Peafowl subpopulations

Gary Robbins (WPA, UK) and Dr Ettore Randi
(INFS, Bolgna, Italy) have obtained privileged
access to samples from green peafowl Pavo
muticus skins originating in peninsular Malaysia
and held in the Raffles Museum collection in
Singapore. These date from before 1920 and
represent the long-extinct Malay Peninsula
population of this species. Eight skins were also
found at Tring where staff also kindly allowed
samples to be taken for analysis. These have been
sent to Ettore Randi for DNA analysis, so that the
degree of genetic difference between the extinct
Malaysian race and surviving populations including
that on J ava in Indonesia and others, can be
established. A population of captive-bred green
peafowl has become feral in the vicinity of Melaka
Zoo in Malaysia, suggesting that a re-introduction
project conducted in accordance with the IUCN
Guidelines has some prospect of succeeding. One
important early step in this process is to establish
which population should be used as the source of
birds for such a project: the DNA analyses are
being carried out to provide data on which to make
this decision.

Pheasants in Cambodia

Staff from Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodia
and the Fauna and Flora International (FFI)
Indochina Programme carried out a wildlife survey
in NE Mondulkiri Province during April 2000.
They found evidence of green peafowl Pavo
muticus being hunted but local information
suggested that it is still relatively common there.
This area is immediately adjacent to the Yok Don
N.P. in Vietnam, which was found to hold an
important concentration of this species in 1998.
Now an international conservation effort is being
advocated to conserve the habitats and many
threatened species of this whole region.

A larger team co-ordinated by FFI undertook a
biodiversity survey of the


Cardomom Mountains in western Cambodia in
J anuary-April 2000. Local hunters indicated that
green peafowl were still common there, although
only two records were obtained. The little known
Lewis's silver pheasant Lophura nycthemera
lewisi, which is endemic to these mountains, was
also recorded in three places. Encouragingly, the
level of hunting by local people seems to be
modest.

Edwards pheasant studbook

A restricted captive population of Edwardss
pheasant Lophura edwardsi in Europe is now
being managed through a highly restricted (EEP)

studbook by Alain Hennache (Cleres Zoo, France)
to minimise genetic losses. He has also excluded
birds shown to be the descendants of Edwardss x
Swinhoes pheasant L. swinhoii hybrids as a result
of mtDNA sequence analysis by Ettore Randi
(INFS, Bologna, Italy).

Pheasant surveys in Sabah

Andrew Sheppy (Rare Breeds Survival Trust, UK)
and others are planning to carry out surveys of
wildlife including Galliformes such as Bornean
peacock-pheasant Polyplectron schleiermacheri
in Sabah, East Malaysia (Borneo) in August-
September 2001.

EAZA GalliTAG Regional Collection Plan

The Galliformes Taxon Advisory Group of the
European Association of Zoos and Aquaria is
concerned with the management of ex situ
populations of pheasants and other Galliformes
species. During the EAZA meeting at Aalborg in
Denmark during September 2000, provisional
decisions were reached on the


management action to be taken on all the
populations overseen by this TAG, including those
of many pheasant species. All species currently
held were assigned a score using a system adopted
by EAZA which stresses in

situ conservation status and zoo involvement in
field conservation action. However the action
proposed reflects several other factors: ex situ
status in Europe and world wide, PSG
recommendations in the 1995 Action Plan, the
supposed quality of the population in terms such as
purity and genetic diversity, and the educational
potential of the species as a live exhibit. The table
below summarises information on the populations
provisionally scheduled for special measures in
Europe as a result of this exercise.

Species ISIS
survey
(31.12.99)
EAZA
GalliTAG
survey
(1998)
Total
ex situ
estimate
Red List
category
(2000)
Proposed
EAZA
GalliTAG
action
Blyths tragopan
Tragopan blythii
8.5.2
6 places
9.5.0
6 places

ca. 50 Vulnerable European
Studbook
Cabots tragopan
Tragopan caboti
19.15.3
11 places
5.5.0
4 places

Studbook
Edwardss pheasant
Lophura edwardsi
104.72.12
36 places
78.76.8
39 places

ca. 1,000 Endangered EEP Studbook
Vietnamese
pheasant
L. hatinhensis
24.19.42
9 places
2.2.0
2 places

50-100 Endangered EEP Studbook
Crestless fireback
L. erythrophthalma
9.15.0
10 places
4.4.0
3 places

c. 200
L.e.e.
c. 50
L.e.p
Vulnerable European
Studbook
Mountain peacock-
pheasant
Polyplectron
inopinatum
21.22.9
9 places
11.12.0
7 places

Studbook
Malaysian peacock-
pheasant
P. malacense
12.15.0
10 places
3.6.0
2 places
Studbook
Great argus
Argusianus argus
49.48.9
41 places
25.30.6
18 places
ca.500 Near
Threatened
European
Studbook
Congo peafowl
Afropavo congensis
49.57.10
20 places
44.33.5
10 places
ca. 150 Vulnerable EEP Studbook

Alain Hennache, Director, Parc Zoologique de
Cleres, 76690 Cleres, France
(zoo.cleres@wanadoo.fr)
Gary Robbins, Stone House, Old Market Street,
Mendlesham, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5SA, U.K.
(GESR@abincub.demon.co.uk)

Copper pheasant study: help needed

The Copper Pheasant Syrmaticus soemmerringii
is endemic to Japan where it is one of the
countrys principal game
birds. This overhunting is


cause for concern, along with habitat destruction.
Predation also occurs as the bird is thought to be
one of main foods for large raptors such as Golden
Eagle and Hodgson's Hawk-eagle. There is little
recent information about its breeding biology and
habitat use. My studies of habitat use over three
years show the species to prefer broad-leaved or
mixed forests, but it is also observed in coniferous
plantations. The density of undergrowth vegetation
appears to be an important factor in habitat
selection.
The number of active hunters and the
numbers of birds hunted have both decreased
markedly since the 1970s. Additionally, local
government and the Hunting Association in J apan
have recommended the release of captive-bred
pheasants to the wild. More than 6,000 Copper
Pheasants have been released every year on J apans
main islands. I examined the effect of release of
pheasants to the wild by radio-tracking. Although
my sample size was small, most of birds with
transmitters were killed by predators within a
month after release. As a result, I suggest that the
idea that hunted individuals are being compensated
for by the breeding output of the many pheasants
being released to the wild should be reconsidered.
As part of my detailed study of habitat use of the
pheasant, I tried to capture the Copper Pheasant in
the wild. Unfortunately I have not succeeded yet so
if someone has experience of capturing pheasants
easily in forest, I would be grateful for the advice.

Dr Noritomo Kawaji. Wildlife Management
Laboratory, Forestry and Forest Products
Research Institute, P. O. Box 16, Tsukuba Norin,
Ibaraki 305 Japan. tel: +81-298-73-3211 (ext.
417), fax: +81-298-73-1543, email:
kawajin@ffpri.affrc.go.jp

Captive breeding helps Science

Analyses of plumage variation in museum skins of
the imperial pheasant conducted by Pamela
Rasmussen at AMHN (Washington D.C.) suggested
that the imperialis phenotype might derive from
natural hybridisation of Edwardss pheasant x
Silver pheasant in central Vietnam (Rasmussen,
1998). Hybridisation experiments conducted in
Clres of Edwardss Pheasant x Berliozs Silver
pheasants strongly support this view. Three male
phenotypes were obtained, of which one was like
the imperial pheasant as described by Delacour, a
second was very similar but with two white spotted
central tail feathers, and a third looked like the bird
caught in Da Krong district (Quang Tri province)
on 27th February 2000. The first mtDNA
sequences also support this hypothesis. These
results will be further detailed when microsatellite
analyses are completed.

White tail feathers have been noted in three captive
Edwards pheasants (France, USA, Germany) likely
due to inbreeding, so that they look like Vietnamese
Pheasants. An analysis of plumage variations in the
Vietnamese pheasant shows that the number of
white tail feathers is very variable, as is also the age
when they develop. This number can also be
different on either side of the tail. Furthermore they
are not always fully white but sometimes brownish
spotted or patched, and one male trapped in Thua
Thien Hu Province, in J une 1999, also had white
third wing coverts. These white feathers suggest an
inbred origin for the Vietnamese Pheasant that may
have just originated from isolated and strongly
bottlenecked Edwards populations living in a very
fragmented habitat. Such inbreeding plumage
features have already been noted in closely related
species like the Swinhoes pheasants in Australia
(Weber, 1992). The range of the Edwards pheasant
has been defined by Delacour, who said that it
occurred from Donghoi to Hoi An, but he never
explored the Ha Tinh-Ke Go region (Hennache &
Dickinson, 2000) so that the Edwards pheasant
might also have occurred in Ha Tinh Province at
the beginning of this century. Moreover, the most
recent bird discoveries also suggest that the ranges
of these two taxa overlap and both could live in
secondary forest. This hypothesis needs to be
confirmed by laboratory DNA data from known
localities.

References
Hennache, A. & Dickinson, E. (2000). Les types
doiseaux rapports du Vietnam, du Laos et du
Cambodge par J ean Delacour entre 1923 et 1939.
Zoosystema 22 (3) : 601-629
Rasmussen, P. (1998). Is the imperial pheasant
Lophura imperialis a hybrid? Work in progress
and a call for information. Tragopan 9: 8-10.
Weber, R. (1992). The Swinhoe pheasant. WPA
News 37 : 29-30.


Alain Hennache. Director, Parc Zoologique de Cleres, 76690 Cleres, France.

WPA International Galliformes Symposium in Nepal,
24-30 September 2000

The World Pheasant Association (WPA) held its
first international symposium on pheasant
conservation in Kathmandu in November 1979. In
September 2000 they gathered there again after a
long tour through Asia for other events in this
series: India (1982), Thailand (1986), China
(1989), Pakistan (1992) and Malaysia (1997).

The 2000 meeting was hosted jointly by HMG
Nepals Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation, the King Mahendra Trust for Nature
Conservation and Bird Conservation Nepal, in
collaboration with WPA and the Specialist Groups
for Pheasants and for Partridges, Quails and
Francolins.

The programme followed a well-tried formula
designed to maximise interaction between all
participants and to use the international gathering
for the benefit of the host country. The first day was
given over entirely to presentations and poster
sessions on Nepal, and two workshops followed.
One was concerned with planning the future
conservation of the Pipar Pheasant Reserve within
the Annapurna Conservation Area. Koklass
Pheasant and Satyr Tragopan populations have
been monitored in this remarkably pristine location
since 1978, whilst WPA has employed a guard and
given substantial assistance to three nearby village
schools. Hem Sagar Baral (Bird Conservation
Nepal) is now preparing a conservation plan for the
area as a guide to future action.

The second workshop constituted a detailed review
of current knowledge of the threatened Swamp
Francolin across its range in the terai swamps and
grasslands on the southern fringe of the Himalaya.
Recent surveys have clarified where it still occurs
in some numbers, but its absence from some
protected areas in its range, and its abundance in at
least one are hard to explain. The workshop
concluded that more work was needed on its habitat
use patterns, and on the impacts of current
management, including winter grass harvesting and
burning in some places.

The remainder of the symposium programme took
the form of a review of progress on Action Plan
projects, and a look ahead to the implementation of
the new editions for 2000-04 that have just been
published by IUCN. Some 20 participants from
China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh,
India and Pakistan were part sponsored by WPA to
attend. A full symposium proceedings will be
published in Nepal in mid-2001, thanks to full
support from the King Mahendra Trust.

WPA International Galliformes
Symposium Scientists Workshop

The scientists workshop was held from 1
st
to 6
th

October at the Nepal Conservation and Research
Training Centre, Sauraha, Royal Chitwan National
Park . Mr Narayan Pd. Dhakal, Director NCRTC,
Sauraha introduced the centre and the work that it
carries out. This includes both training government
officers and others, as well as carrying out research
in the park. This is most notably monitoring
numbers of the large mammal species: tigers and
rhinos.

J ohn Carroll introduced the main workshop theme
of population analysis and emphasised that the
workshop would be informal: there would be
birdwatching walks each day from 6.30 am. Then
there were formal sessions - a combination of talks
on participants own work and proposal based on
cases in the new Action Plans. These presentations
were developed in Nepali-foreigner pairs or trios
and were presented later in the workshop. Topics
covered included how to count populations of
pheasants and partridges in the wild by dealing with
issues of sampling, practical constraints and the
objectives being set. In addition, report and
manuscript writing and research proposal
development was covered.


Philip McGowan, Director of Conservation, WPA
(conservation@pheasant.org.uk)
John Carroll, Chair, Partridge, Quail &
Francolin SG (jcarroll@smokey.forestry.uga.edu)
Peter Garson, Chair, Pheasant SG
(peter.garson@ncl.ac.uk).

Ruffed pheasants in captivity: a major problem

Although the two species of ruffed pheasants
Chrysolophus are commonly held, there are serious
problems concerning the animals kept in protected
environments. An aviary bird for such a long time,
the Golden pheasant, Chrysolophus pictus (L.), has
succumbed to all the effects of domestication. Also
the relative proportion of mutated genes has
become far too important in the ex-situ populations,
with an important impact on the features of bred
animals. There has also been occasional
hybridisation with Lady Amherst pheasant
Chrysolophus amherstiae. As a result todays
animals in European collections are hardly
comparable with their wild ancestors.The limited
imports of mainly male Lady Amherst pheasants,
resulted in regular crossbreeding with golden
pheasants, right from the beginning. In the attempts
to reconstruct the Lady phenotype by means of
artificial selection later on, important mistakes have
been made. Features that not at all occur in nature
were favoured, while natural characters have
disappeared.

About three years ago some ruffed pheasant
enthusiasts decided to take some action. An
extensive morphologic investigation of animals
caught in the wild was carried out by screening all
the skins in the collection of the Natural History
Museum at Tring (UK). The results of these studies
were published in a series of papers in the Dutch
edition of Aviornis International. They provided us
with detailed descriptions of both male and female
of the two species and permit us to unmask most of
the hybrids between these species at once on a
simple morphologic base. Examination of a large
number of animals in private collections confirmed
that very few pure animals are left in captivity.
Fortunately, we were able to obtain some
individuals of the golden pheasant, offspring from
animals imported from the Beijing Breeding Centre
and from the San Diego Zoo. In the meantime we
are keeping within the Ruffed Pheasant Group a
population of about 60 birds with good
morphologic features. As for the Lady Amherst
pheasant, we were not able to localise any good-
looking bird, with only one exception.

To confirm the morphologic research, feather
samples were sent to the Instituto Nazionale per la
Fauna Selvatica (INFS) at Bologna (Italy) where
Dr. Ettore Randi analysed them. 38 samples of C.
pictus and C. amherstiae were collected. All
samples were analysed, and all except one showed
mt-DNA very similar to putative pure C. pictus.
Therefore, these results suggest that almost all the
C. amherstiae in European stocks are hybrids.
However, the C. pictus samples have given rather
variable sequences, and there is only one apparently
pure C. amherstiae for comparison so it is obvious
that more samples must be taken, especially from
reliable reference birds. Perhaps samples from
museum skins would be helpful, although this
material is not so easy to work with. Another
solution would be to obtain samples from animals
caught in the wild.

There is also the problem of unmasking hybrids
from C. pictus with only paternal introgression of
C. amherstiae. As the mt-DNA is maternally
inherited, it can detect only maternal hybridisation.
Dr. Randi is currently checking ca. 50 different
micro-satellite loci, which were originally isolated
in the domestic fowl. These micro-satellites will be
used to obtain information on eventual paternal
hybridisation.

Any information about reliable Chrysolophus,
especially amherstiae is welcome!

Ludo Pinceel. Rivendell, Grootrees 66, B-2460
Katerlee, Belgium. e-mail:
Ludo.Pinceel@bio.kuleuven.ac.be


Ring-necked pheasant threatened in Mongolia

We are wanting to conduct some serious research
on the status and conservation of the ring-necked
pheasants Phasianus colchicus native to Mongolia.
We want to do more to protect our local races of
the ring-necked pheasant in the wild. There are two
subspecies of pheasants occurring in the wild in
Mongolia: the one in the west is known as the
Kobdo pheasant P.c. hagenbeki, and the one in the
east is P.c. pallasi, often referred to as the
Manchurian pheasant a it has a large distribution in
China. We believe that both these wonderful birds
are becoming endangered in Mongolia as a result of
several threats. During brief pilot surveys, we has
so far found P.c. hagenbecki in small populations
along the Hovd river in three of our provinces,
where this bird was first found in 1901 by
Hagenbeck.

These birds have always had to survive the extreme
winter conditions typical of central Asia, with
months of snowfall, strong winds and temperatures
as low as 50
o
C. The meagre vegetation is mostly
covered with snow during this season, and is
therefore not available to the pheasants as food.
And there are predators ever ready to take them:
especially foxes, hawks and eagles. But now we
believe that livestock numbers are increasing in the
pheasant areas, and illegal hunting may be pushing
these populations to the very brink of extinction in
our country.

We have little experience in the field of pheasant
conservation and management, and hope that
members of your organisation can help us to save
this beautiful native species of our country.

Gankhuyag & Buyant Seseer, P.O. Box 681,
Ulaanbaatar 210646, Mongolia
Email: gbb9@hotmail.com

Recent news from Myanmar: Blyths tragopan

Together with Karl-Heinz Grabowski, with whom I
have travelled in search of pheasants in China on
several occasions, I made a three week trip to
Myanmar in February 2001, as the first element in a
planned co-operation between WPA and the Nature
& Wildlife Division of the Forest Department there.

Thanks to much local assistance I managed to
locate a new site for Blyths tragopan Tragopan
blythii in the north of the country. This place lies 50
km northwest of Putao and can only be reached by
walking a 120 km long trail. To make this trek I
needed 20 porters, with three of them only carry
our rice provision! The locals normally allow seven
days for this journey, but because we were
extremely short of time I persuaded them to try for
it in just four days. On average we walked for 8
hours per day, uphill and down again repeatedly,
and I lost 8kg in weight with some help from ticks
and sandflies, but we managed it!

The whole region is covered with primary forest
and Horsefields kalij (Lophura leucomelanos
lathami), grey peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron
bicalcaratum) and red junglefowl (Gallus gallus)
are very common. I was able to find a valley
containing at least three pairs of Blyths, and I
managed to get a short sequence on video. I could
not quite manage to see Sclaters monal
(Lophophorus sclateri) because snow came down
to our campsite and I would have had to climb over
two further tops with 30 cm of snow lying in order
to reach the proper elevation for them. My porter
did not have adequate clothes or shoes for this, and
in any case by this time we were both at the limits
of our endurance, carrying nothing except the
clothes we stood in, binoculars and camera gear,
tent and sleeping bags. Nevertheless I did find a
Sclaters skin with the locals.

After making it back to Yangon I also managed a
three day trip to gather
evidence of of Oates kalij (L.


l. oatesi), and I found lineated kalij (L. l. lineata)
and Burmese green peafowl (Pavo muticus spicifer)
in the zoo there. All in all, rather an exhausting,
exciting and profitable three weeks!

I thank my long-suffering friend Karl-Heinz for
accompanying me once again, and U Khin Maung
Zaw (Director, Nature & Wildlife Division,
Yangon) for making the many arrangements
necessary for our fieldwork. I am also extremely
grateful for funding support from Mr J ames
Goodhart via WPA in UK, and from the Stiftung
Avifauna Protecta and the Zoological Society for
the Conservation of Species and Populations, both
in Germany.

Alexander Pack-Blumenau, An der Bahn 5,
24220 Flintbek, Germany. email: Alexander.Pack-
Blumenau @t-online.de

Investigation of blood pheasant mating system

During 2000 I obtained a grant from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China to study the
relationship between kinship and social behaviour
in the blood pheasant. This three year project will
mainly focus on the following specific areas:

1. Space use and social behaviour in the breeding
season. This will involve the estimation of genetic
relatedness among neighbouring individuals in the
wild, including paired males, females and unpaired
yearling males. The object is to find out how
closely-related and unrelated birds arrange
themselves in space, and to see how aggressive,
cooperative and sexual behaviour between
individuals are affected by the degree genetic
relatedness of the individuals involved.

2. Social structure and social behaviour in winter
flocks. By determining the relatedness of
individuals within two or three neighbouring winter
flocks, it will be possible to determine how these
flocks form at the end of the breeding season. An
attempt will also be made to interpret dominance
relations within flocks in terms of kinship, centring
on the idea that close relatives should be more
cooperative than unrelated individuals.

3. Dispersal behaviour and genetic relatedness.
This part of the project will aim to describe the
dynamics of winter flock break-up into breeding
pairs and non-breeding individuals.

To start things off, I collected 15 samples of blood
and/or feathers in the spring of 2000, and expect to
get many more in the current winter and through
this and next year. Ettore Randi (INFS, Bologna,
Italy) has kindly agreed to collaborate with me in
this work. In order to estimate relatedness from
DNA samples, a good number of variable
microsatellite loci need to be identified in blood
pheasant nuclear DNA samples. The INFS lab is in
the midst of an extensive screening exercise with
many microsats from chicken and samples from a
number of different pheasant species. Many of the
chicken microsats amplify in other pheasant
species, but most of the loci identified are not
variable enough to allow relatedness analyses. Up
to now no blood pheasant samples have been
checked, so completing the screening will still
require some months, particularly if it proves
difficult to pick up variable microsats. But then
hopefully we can get started with the kinship
analysis of individuals in my study population.

Jia Chenxi, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, 19 Zhongguancun Lu, Haidian,
Beijing 100080, P.R.China. email:
jiacx@btamail.net.cn

by Dr Varadarajan Gokula


Research on Sclater's Monal in west Yunnan, China WPA
Progress Report - June 1999 to June 2000

Executive Summary

This project main aims are collecting Sclater's
Monal distribution data and ecology in west of
Yunnan, then make conservation measures on the
pheasant after the study work.. The project was
carried smoothly started in J une 1999. We have two
groups and took 6 time field work in Tenchong,
Deqin and Mangkang. Total field working days
about 115 days. We recorded 5 new distribution
sites, habitat using in winter and spring, 9 food
plants of the bird and some information of poaching
pressure.

Introduction

This report details the first 12 months of a project
to specify the distribution, ecology
and hunting press of the Sclater's Monal in west of
Yunnan. Sclater's Monal is a endangered species.
There is no enough information on the distribution
and basic ecological data and so limits conservation
efforts. This project includes following main parts:
1.To determine the new distribution sites of
Sclater's Monal in west of Yunnan. 2.Investigating
hunting pressure to the species by local poaching.
3.To census density of the bird in nature reserve.
4.To study habitats using by the pheasant.

Objectives

1.Field work


Our field work started in November 1999. We
organized two field groups for the project One
group working in Tengchong, south of west
Yunnan, another group working in Deqin and
Mangkang, north of west Yunnan. Concerned
information please see table 1.

Date Days Region Activity

1999.11.18~11.30. 13 Tengchong Distribution survey
2000.01.05~01.20. 15 Tengchong Winter ecology study
2000.03.15~05.07. 52 Deqin Mangkang Distribution/ecology study
2000.04.01.~04.10. 10 Tengchong Ecology study
2000.04.20~05.15. 25 Tengchong Ecology study
2000.06.06.~06.18. 12 Baoshan and Tengchong Distribution/Ecology study

2. Distribution survey
Field survey work started in November 1999 and
proceed well. We developed methods visiting local
people In J une and J uly,1999, we made a map
showing all locations known to hold Sclater's or
known to need survey. In addition, we created
visiting form and schedule. Meanwhile, we
developed photos of Sclater's and other pheasants
for distribution survey. In November, we started
distribution information collected. Data to be
collected is as follows: (1). General location
(county and village name or place name),
(2).Estimated ranging area of the bird. The primary
method to determine distribution of Sclater's is
showing the picture of the pheasant to local people,
then according to the information from them, go to
the area where the pheasant inhabiting to observe.
Survey work covered counties and results see Table
2.

Site name & county Altitude Survey date Result

Danzha, Tengchong 2600~3400 1999.11.18~11.22 See 2 birds Langyashan,
Tengchong 2500~340 1999.11.24~11.29. See 1 bird
Xinluyakou, Tengchong 3000~3300 2000.06.07~06.11. Heard calls
Nanzaigongfang, Tengchong 3000~3300 2000.06.11~06.18. See 4 birds
Chalitong, Deqin 2000.03.16~20. No records
Adong, Deqin 2000.04.01~04 No records
Sinong, Xidan Deqin 2000.04.09~12. No records
Foshan, Deqin 2000.04.16~18 No records
Cizhong, Badong Deqin 3400~3900 2000.05.02~07. See 2 birds
Yanjin, Mangkang(Xizang) 2000.04.21~28. No records

During the initial period, our distribution survey
covered 4 counties and determined 5 new sites of
the pheasant.

3.Instigating hunting pressure:
During our field work, we visited 9 towns and
villages, we did not see local people sale the
pheasant at local market. However, we found about
10 pheasant traps around Danozi, where is core
area of Gaoligongshan Nature Reserve. It showed
there is poaching in some regions.

4.To census density of the Monal
We set 3 survey routes in Datang and carried a
census work in J anuary 2000. Survey results as
following table 3.


Route length Sur.1 Sur.2 Sur.3 Sur.4 Sur.5 Altitude Habitat

1460m 0 0 3 birds 0 2 birds 2450~2580 Broadleaf evergreen
940m 1 bird 0 0 0 2 birds 2640~2760 Same as above
1180m 4 birds 2 birds 0 0 0 2600~2750 Same as above

We also used fix listening station to counting the
pheasant crow and get some information in April
and May of 2000. We recorded five sites where
often can heard calls of the pheasant at about 6
square kilometers We feel this way may be not
exact, because the birds move in large range.

5.Study habitats
Main field work carried in Datang of Tengchong
County, some
field work carried in Cizhong of Deqin. We
recorded 5 types habitats used by the pheasant and
obtained inhabtating altitude with diffirent season.
According to the observing of winter and spring
work, Sclater's Monal occupied broad leave
evergreen forest (Below 2800) in winter. With
snow line withdraw up, the birds occupy azalea and
bamboo bushes mixed forest (2800~3100), dragon
spruce, fir and azalea mixed forest (2900~3200),
alpine meadow stage by stage. In Cizhong of
Deqin County, the pheasant living higher than the
birds of Tenchong. We think main reason is there
are more villages under 3400m. Human activities
disturb siriously.

6.Diet
During field work we have recorded 9 kinds of
food plants to be eaten by the birds and collected
34 samples of dropping. We are trying check out
what plants
are in the droppings now.

7.Studying activities of Sclater's Monal in
captivity.
For get data and help our field work and let
members who join this project get more training,
we started a study on the pheasant in captivity since
March 2000. This work carried at Forestry Center
of Yunnan, where is near Kunming, and watching
on a pair of the birds. The work will be finished
next summer.

Planned Activities and problems for next
reporting period

1.To carry distribution survey continuously and
focus on Nushan Ranges.

2.Improve ecology study method. We used
binoculars watching the pheasant in alpine
mountain and find it to be powerful, We plan to
buy a telescope for long range watching bird in
high mountain
3.Due to Datang has hard traffic condition, we plan
set a new researching site in Nanzaigongfan, where
has a relatively good traffic condition. We plan to
do some work in coming fall and check
Nanzaigongfan if suitable for the project.
4.Due to postgraduate student, Zhou Yongwu need
to study basic courses during spring 2000, field
work were stopped sometimes This situation will be
changed after Zhou finished his basic courses this
summer. We will organize a study group can be
continued carry field work next spring.

Han Lianxian. Wildlife Research and Teaching
Division, Resource College, Southwest Forestry
University, Bailong Temple, Kunming, Yunnan
650224 P. R. China. tel: ++86871 3862628 e-
mail: hlxian@public.km.yn.cn

Surveys for Sclaters Monal in northwestern Yunnan

Introduction


We conducted surveys for Sclaters Monal
Lophophura sclateri at three sites along Chinas
mountainous southwestern border with Myanmar
(Burma), near the eastern range limit of Sclaters
Monal. Much of the survey area had only recently
been opened to foreign travellers. Potential monal
habitats were widespread throughout the area, but
the species had been confirmed at only a handful of
locations, primarily because access has been very
limited.

Objectives

Our objectives were three-fold: 1) to assess
variation in Sclaters Monal habitats along a north-
south gradient through western Yunnan, 2) to
compare densities of monal under different habitat
conditions, and 3) to identify a potential location
for in-depth ecological studies of the species. We
were joined by staff members of the Mammalogy
Section of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, our
host institution in China. Our work was supported
by the Zoological Society of San Diego and the
Kunming Institute of Zoology.

Results

We began fieldwork in early May, 1999, at Da
Yang Tian, Tengchong County, near the southern
limit of the monals known distribution. Da Yang
Tian is a mosaic of meadows and bamboo thickets
at about 3,900 meters elevation. It is probably the
most extensive patch of alpine habitat in the
southern Gaoligong Range. We surveyed Da Yang
Tians meadows for 9 days, working from a series
of bivouacs along the crest of the main ridge. In
essence we conducted a line transect survey in slow
motion. Every second day or so we relocated our
camp several hundred yards further along the ridge.
Before first light we entered makeshift blinds
positioned to provide a wide view of local terrain.
Weather permitting, we would spend four hours
each morning and afternoon watching and listening
for monal from these blinds.

We observed between three and five adult male
monal in the Da Yang Tian area. We werent
certain of the exact number, however, because we
were unable to distinguish between individual
males on successive days. We surmise from several
hours of behavioural observation that territoriality
among male monal had waned by early May.
Individual males often flew cross-slope several
hundred yards to alight where we had seen or heard
other males. Vocalizations by newly arrived males
did not elicit a vocal response, however, from the
males already present. On the third day of
fieldwork an unseasonably early monsoon storm
struck. We held out through five days of persistent
rain and fog but found it impossible to observe
additional monal.

On May 23rd we arrived at Ci Kai, Gongshan
County, the market town nearest our northernmost
survey site, Dong Shao Fang. Chinese scientists had
collected monal at Dong Shao Fang in years past,
and a well-established trail provided relatively easy
access to alpine elevations. Our departure into the
field was delayed, however, by continued heavy
rains, which raised the Pula River above local
footpaths. Once we arrived at Dong Shao Fang, rain
and fog persisted for 5 more days, largely
restricting us to our tents and kitchen lean-to. It was
becoming clear that a springtime study of Sclaters
Monal was going to require special monsoon-
worthy equipment, as well as an innovative
approach to collecting data. On May 30th the
weather subsided enough for us to check a nearby
4,000 metre pass for signs of monal. Two members
of our party reported hearing the call of a male
monal, but the rain intensified and we were forced
to return to camp before others could confirm its
presence. At this site too, inclement weather
essentially confined us to our tents most of the days
we had allocated for a survey.

In early J une we arrived at our final survey site, on
the slopes above a dilapidated lumber town named
Zhiziluo, central Fugong County. Chinese scientists
had collected many Sclaters Monal here over the
years. It was our central survey site, approximately
midway between Da Yang Tian and Dong Shao
Fang. We endured more foul weather on the local
summit for a full three days. On the fourth day we
descended to the upper tree limit, where we had
observed what we believed were monal fecal
droppings. On the way, we virtually stumbled into a
female monal with three two-week-old chicks. Over
the next day and a half we scoured nearby slopes
for more signs of monal. At 4,100 metres elevation
on a prominent spur we noticed what looked like an
unusual kind of soil erosion or patterned ground.
On closer inspection we saw that the soils mossy
crust had been turned over in 1 to 2 inch squares.
Fresh monal droppings and deeply-excavated pits
confirmed that we had found a site where a large
number of monal had recently fed. The diggings
extended for several hundred
meters up the spur. We were


delighted to find examples of a fungus-infected
caterpillar within the pits dug by monal. This dong
chong xia cao is a popular and expensive
traditional Chinese medication that David
Rimlinger has previously determined to be a likely
food item of the rare Chinese Monal in Sichuan.
Other table scraps left behind by the monal
included stems and roots of cinquefoil (Rosaceae),
buttercup (Ranunculaceae), jack-in-the-pulpit
(Araceae), and fritillary (Liliaceae). Other evidence
suggested the monal had also eaten grass shoots, a
small bulb-forming member of the carrot family,
beetle larvae, and the larvae of wood-boring
insects. The proximity of the diggings to dense
thickets, both here and at Da Yang Tian, suggested
Sclaters Monal often forage within a few metres of
bamboo or broadleaf thickets. The presumed flock
of monal remained quiet and out of sight
throughout our stay. We suspect their vocal season
had passed by the time we arrived at Zhiziluo in
early J une.

We decided the Zhiziluo site was the best of the
three sites for an in-depth monal study. It offered a
diverse mosaic of habitat types, a branching ridge
system that would facilitate radio-telemetry, expert
and congenial guides, and an apparent abundance
of monal. Da Yang Tian was appealing for its
relative ease of access, abundance of interesting
wildlife including lesser panda, takin, tufted deer,
black bear and blood pheasants. Local authorities
were hospitable, and the local field help was pretty
good under the circumstances. But the extent of
monal habitat and the numbers of monal at Da
Yang Tian appeared to be quite limited. Dong Shao
Fang, our northernmost site, had such good access
that it was probably too disturbed by humans. The
phenomenal rainfall at Dong Shao Fang would be a
formidable obstacle to overcome, and the local help
we encountered considered monal research little
more than a business opportunity.

Discussion

So far as we could determine, Sclaters Monal
persist throughout their historic range in Yunnan.
We also received reports that the species occurs
even further south than currently recognized. Han
Lianxian of Yunnans Southwest Forestry College
is currently checking several potential range
extensions. The species occurrence on
discontinuous mountain summits, however, suggest
it could be vulnerable to local extinction. This is
particularly true in the south, where alpine habitats
occur as isolated islands and local populations may
consist of as few as a dozen individuals.

Our surveys produced three to five adult males at
Da Yang Tian, one vocalizing individual at Dong
Shao Fang, and one female with three chicks at
Zhiziluo. Unfortunately, bad weather and our
failure to fully implement the intended study design
leave us with no means to compare the abundance
of monal at the three sites we visited. The birds we
encountered all occupied large meadows or
meadow complexes that extended several hundred
metres down steep slopes. These meadows were
surrounded by bamboo or rhododendron thickets,
with at least a few rock outcrops present. The
lowest elevation at which we observed such
meadows, as well as monal, was about 3,000
metres. The flowering meadow plants we observed
at all three sites included cinquefoil, buttercup,
fritillary, jack-in-the-pulpit, and peony (Rosaceae).
Many bulb-forming monocots occurred within the
bamboo and rhododendron thickets as well. Certain
habitat features increased or decreased along the
north-south axis of the monals Yunnan
distribution. Alpine habitats tend to be more
contiguous and more rocky at more northerly
locations because mountain ranges of the region
achieve greater elevations further north. Rainfall is
also higher further north. Alpine thickets at more
northerly locations contained a greater proportion
of broadleaf shrubs and less bamboo.

While travelling between our three survey sites we
encountered two dead monal for sale in outdoor
markets. Even though the species receives the same
protected status as giant pandas, carrying
a potential death sentence, monal were being sold
openly for about $12. It appears that illegal market
hunting still poses a significant threat to Sclaters
Monal. Herb collection for traditional Chinese
medicine may also be detrimental to monal, but not
because herb collectors compete with monal for the
roots and tubers of such plants as "ta huang" (wild
rhubarb) or "bei mu" (fritillary). Herb collectors are
often the only humans that visit the heights
occupied by Sclaters Monal. They camp for
several days while collecting herbs, and many set
trap-lines or hunt with guns to add meat to their
meals. Chinas burgeoning rural economy is
enticing increasing numbers of entrepreneurs into
the mountains to harvest such alternative forest
products as medicinal herbs. The apparent
connection between these cottage industries and the
illegal harvest of large animals like Sclaters Monal
deserves serious consideration by Chinas wildlife
conservation authorities.


For an illustrated report on these surveys visit J im
Blands website at:
http://homepage.smc.edu/bland_jim/Sclater's_field_
survey.htm

References

Bell, C. (1995). Tracking the elusive monal.
Zoonooz 68(4):8-13.
Han, L. (1995). Distribution and conservation
status of galliformes in the Gaoligongshan
Region. Annual Review of the World Pheasant
Association 94/95:23-24.

David Rimlinger. Curator of Birds, Zoological
Society of San Diego, P. O. Box 551, San Diego,
CA 92112, USA.
James Bland. Life Sciences Department, Santa
Monica College, 1900 Pico Boulevard, Santa
Monica, CA 90405, USA.
Wen Xianji. Conservation Biology Center,
Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan,
China 650223.
Yang Xiaojun. Birds Division, Kunming Institute
of Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, China
650223.

Status and habitat of Cheer Pheasant in Himachal Pradesh, India -
Results of 1997-1998 surveys

Introduction

The Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichi is distributed
in India, Pakistan and Nepal. In India has been
found at numerous sites in Himachal Pradesh and
Uttar Pradesh. It inhabits steep hillsides with scrub
and grass and dissected with wooded ravines at
1200-3500 m and has a strong affinity for early
successional habitats maintained by frequent human
intervention. Cheer Pheasant populations have been
severely reduced due to habitat degradation, over-
hunting and conversion of land for agriculture. Due
to its specialised habitat requirements, the
distribution of cheer is very patchy. Most known
populations are very small (<10 birds), making
them extremely vulnerable to local extinction
(McGowan & Garson 1995).

The objective of these surveys was to document the
status of cheer in previously known sites and to find
new sites in Himachal Pradesh. During surveys the
structure and composition of the cheer habitat were
recorded. These habitat parameters were related to
an index of density derived from cheer call counts.
Land use practices at sites studied were also
documented.

Study areas

I conducted surveys from March to J une in 1997
and 1998 in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India
which lies between latitudes 30
o
22 N to 33
o
12 N
and longitudes 75
o
45 E to 79
o
04 E (Figure 1). I
selected seven study areas in the districts of Solan-
Shimla, Chamba and Kinnaur, which collectively
represent the scattered distribution of cheer in the
state.

Chail Wildlife Sanctuary is an area of 108.5 km
2

lying about 20 km south of Shimla. The sanctuary
has Chail town and 121 villages within its
boundaries. The area comprises Himalayan
subtropical pine forest with extensive south- and
west- facing grassy slopes supporting scattered Chir
Pine Pinus roxburghii and extensive north facing
slopes of Ban Oak Quercus leucotrichophora
forests. Rhododendron arboreum, Deodar Cedrus
deodara, Kainth Pyrus pashia and Blue Pine Pinus
wallichiana are also present. The undergrowth was
mainly Berberis and Rubus, with some Rosa,
Daphnae, Myrsine, and Rhabdosia. The habitat
supported extensive patches of tall grass in places


and is regularly subject to grazing, cutting and
burning.

Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary (70 km
2
) lies on the
south bank of the river Sutlej. The sanctuary
supports typical West Himalayan low altitude forest
comprising steep slopes covered with vast expanses
of tall grass sparsely forested with Chir Pine, Ban
Oak and some Rhododendron. Rubus dominated in
undergrowth of Hypericum, Rosa, Daphnae,
Berberis, Indigofera, Rhabdosia, and Elsholtzia.
There were some patches of Euphorbia within
grassy tracts. Many areas were grazed and cut in
Majathal with some signs of burning in Kangri and
Surgadwari West.

Kaksthal lies on the south bank of the river Sutlej in
district Kinnaur and is located 15 km from Nichar
above the Shimla - Kinnaur national highway. This
site probably represents the present northern limit
for cheer in Himachal Pradesh. There are sparsely
forested patches of Blue Pine, Edible Pine Pinus
gerardiana, Kharsu Oak Quercus semecarpifolia
and Spruce Picea smithiana. Some NE slopes
supported thick Deodar forests. Steep SW slopes
were covered with short grass and scrub comprising
mainly Rhabdosia, Rubus and Berberis. A large
grassy area on the SW slope is being planted with
Chir Pine. Kaksthal was the most disturbed of all
the sites studied. There were signs of cutting,
burning and grazing and some slopes, being
denuded of cover, were heavily eroded.

Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary is an area of 64.2 km
2

together with which I surveyed Sara Reserve Forest
and Bhaatal in district Chamba, and the Thathana
Reserve Forest to the southeast. All the study areas
in Chamba comprised mixed conifer forests and
moist temperate deciduous forests. In Tundah
Wildlife Sanctuary, the tree cover included Blue
Pine, Deodar, Spruce, Kharsu Oak, Banni Oak
Quercus glauca, Moru Oak Quercus floribunda,
Silver Fir Abies pindrow, Walnut Juglans regia,
Horse Chestnut Aesculus indica and Elm Ulmus
wallichiana. Indigofera and Berberis along with
some Rubus, Rosa, Daphnae, Cotoneaster,
Lonicera, and Rhus dominated the scrub cover. The
Thathana Reserve Forest supported Silver Fir,
Spruce and Blue Pine in tree cover and
undergrowth of Berberis, Indigofera and Myrsine.
In Sara Reserve Forest and Bhaatal, there were
mixed forests of Silver Fir, Spruce and Kharsu Oak
with a shrub cover of Berberis, Rumex, and Rosa.
There were extensive patches of short grass with
signs of cutting and burning at numerous places.
Gujjar (nomadic herdsmen) settlements were found
throughout all the study areas in Chamba.

Fig. 1. Map of Himachal Pradesh showing study areas. (1 - Chail Wildlife Sanctuary, 2 - Majathal Wildlife
Sanctuary, 3 - Kaksthal, 4 - Bhataal, 5 - Sara Reserve Forest, 6 - Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary & Thathana reserve
Forest).


Methods

Information on the cheer locations in the selected
study areas was collected from published literature,
and through interviews with local villagers and
shepherds. Dawn and dusk calls and the call
playback method were used to estimate the number
of sites where cheer called (henceforth called
calling sites).

For dawn call counts, the transects were manned 30
minutes before until 60 minutes after sunrise and
each observer noted the number of calling sites and
their positions. Times of calls and compass
bearings of calling sites were also used to collate
the data and estimate a minimum number of calling
sites per transect. The call playback method was
used only when no cheer calls were heard during
dawn and dusk watches at a particular site. I used
only two call broadcasts of short duration (20
seconds each) to avoid the risk of disturbance to
calling birds. In case of a response after a call was
broadcast, the number of calling sites was noted.
For estimating density indices, each calling site
detected was treated as an individual data point.
Data only from dawn call counts was used as birds
appear generally less likely to call at dusk. The area
sampled at each site was estimated from the length
of the transect and an effective strip width of 200
m.

Habitat sampling plots were randomly located in
patches of structurally different vegetation both at
the calling sites and the vacant sites. Sites where no
cheer calls were heard even after call playback
were classed as vacant sites. The selected strata
were grassland, grassland interspersed with some
trees, mixed forest, conifer forest and agricultural
land. Naturally occurring trails in selected strata in
cheer and vacant sites were used as transects and
sampling plots were located by generating random
numbers.

At locations generated by random numbers in
calling and vacant sites, 0.05 ha (radius=12.6 m)
circular plots were marked. The following data
were collected - diameter of trees and saplings at
breast height. All trees within the circular plot were
counted by species. Canopy cover (%) was
estimated by taking 20 + or readings through a
sighting tube (diameter =5 cm) for the presence or
absence of green leaves.

Within each circular plot, one 44 m quadrat was
positioned randomly for sampling shrubs. Shrub
cover (%) was estimated at three heights; 0.5 m, 1.0
m and 1.5 m, by counting the number of covered
squares (each square =5 x 5 cm) of a 3050 cm
chequer board at a distance of 5 m. Data on ground
cover were collected in two randomly located 11
m quadrats marked within the circular plot, and
mean values were calculated. Ground cover (%)
was estimated along a diagonal through each 11 m
quadrat by taking 20 +or readings through a
sighting tube (diameter =3 cm) held at waist height
for the presence or absence of ground cover,
respectively. Ground cover height was measured at
four corners of each 11 m quadrat with a scale. At
each site, altitude, aspect, slope, number of villages
within 1-2 km, and presence of a water body,
cliff/ravine and cultivation within 300 m, were all
noted. Land use practices with respect to cutting
and burning within one year and grazing were
recorded.

Results

Index of Cheer Pheasant density

A total of 15 calling sites were detected at Majathal
Wildlife Sanctuary (Table 1) and the density index
equated to 17 sites per km
2
in suitable habitat. In
Chail Wildlife Sanctuary, call counts on the
Kharion and Blossom beats produced 24 calling
sites at a density index of 5 sites per km
2
. Density
index at Kaksthal and surrounding areas was 3 sites
per km
2
. Bhaatal and Sara Reserve Forest produced
5 and 4 sites per km
2
, respectively. Density indices
from two sites in Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary and
three sites in Thathana Reserve Forest were 4 and 5
sites per km
2
, respectively.

Garson (1983) reported 24 pairs per km
2
in April
1983 in Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary. There were
40 pairs of cheer reported in April 1979, with a
density on suitable habitat of about 6 pairs per km
2

in Chail Wildlife Sanctuary (Gaston & Singh 1980,
Gaston et al. 1981). Garson (1983) reported 7 pairs
per km
2
in March 1983, which increased marginally
in 1987 (Garson et al. 1992). Sharma & Pandey
(1989) sighted two birds and heard some calls from
slope above the Sheep Breeding Farm at Kaksthal
in March 1988. Gaston (1981) reported two calling
birds in Sara Reserve Forest.
J androtia et al. (1996) heard


4-6 cheer in J anuary 1994 at Bhaatal, and sighted
eight cheer in Sara Reserve Forest in February
1995. J androtia et al. (1996) sighted seven and
heard 10-14 birds in Thathana Reserve Forest in
March 1995.

Table 1. Number of vegetation plots, number of calling sites and density indices at
various survey areas.

Name of area Number of
vegetation plots
Number of calling
sites
Area surveyed
(Km
2
)
Density index
(Sites/Km
2
)
Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary 9 15 0.9 17
Chail Wildlife Sanctuary 10 24 4.5 5
Kaksthal 7 5 1.5 3
Bhaatal 5 3 0.6 5
Sara Reserve Forest 5 3 0.7 4
Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary 6 2 0.5 4
Thathana Reserve Forest 6 3 0.6 5

Habitat use by Cheer Pheasant

All the cheer sites surveyed were within 2 km of the
nearest human habitation and within 300 m of a
cliff or ravine (Table 2). Water was available
within 300 m only at Bhaatal, Tundah Wildlife
Sanctuary and Thathana Reserve Forest. Both the
sites at Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary were near
cultivated land. Table 3 shows that there were
differences in certain vegetation characteristics
between habitat plots at calling and vacant sites.
Number of trees, saplings and shrubs was lower at
calling sites than at vacant sites. All calling sites
had some shrub cover whereas some vacant sites
lacked it completely. Height of shrub cover at
calling sites showed a greater diversity than at
vacant sites. There were a significantly higher
percentage of shrubs (height 0.51.0 m) at cheer
sites. All calling sites had a significantly greater
ground cover than vacant sites.

The calling sites had 0-30 % forest cover and
vacant sites had 10-50 % forest cover, and the
difference was significant (p <0.05). All calling
sites supported a significantly (p <0.05) greater
percentage of grass cover (30-75%) than vacant
sites (20-50%). There was no significant difference
between percentage of bare ground at calling sites
(7 %) and vacant sites (10 %).

A correlation analysis between cheer density
indices at various sites and habitat variables was
carried out. Density indices were positively
correlated with ground cover (r
s,7
=0.86, p<0.05)
and shrub cover (r
s,7
=0.75, p<0.05) and negatively
correlated with tree density (r
s,7
=0.018, N.S.),
canopy cover (r
s,7
=0.20, N.S.) and sapling
density (r
s,7
=0.20, N.S.).

Discussion

Cheer were recorded in a wide variety of forest
types but showed a strong preference for open areas
with dense ground cover. The grassland habitats of
cheer are successional and
numerous areas recently


found to hold small populations are regularly
disturbed by grass cutting, cattle grazing and
stubble burning (Garson et al. 1992). Most of the
cheer sites were located within 1-2 km of human
habitation. Locals clear vast tracts of land for their
cattle by cutting and burning. This is done primarily
to prevent regeneration of scrub and forest, and
probably has helped to maintain the scrub-grassland
habitat of cheer (Gaston 1987, Garson et al. 1992).
At many sites in Kaksthal, Bhaatal, Sara Reserve
Forest, Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary and Thathana
Reserve Forest, cutting and burning was so
extensive that no cover was left for use by the birds
even in April and May, when they breed. Cheer
Pheasants are easily detected by their calls, and this
combined with their open habitat make them
exceptionally vulnerable to shooting (Garson et al.
1992). I did
not come across any direct evidence of poaching.
However, a discrete inquiry with locals revealed
that there was poaching especially in winter when
cheer descend closer to villages to avoid snow.

Table 2. Details of habitat and land use at calling sites surveyed during study.

Name of
Site
Altitude
(m)
Aspect Slope
(
o
)
Cliff/
Ravine
a

Grass cover
(%)
Land use
b

practices
Dominant
c

tree sp.
Dominant
shrub sp.
Majathal
Wildlife
Sanctuary

1750 -
1875
NE,
NW,
SW
50-60 + 65 - 92 G, C, B Chir Pine Rubus
Chail
Wildlife
Sanctuary

1925 -
2050
SW,
SE
50 - 60 + 72 - 100 G, C, B Ban Oak Berberis
Kaksthal

2000 -
2250
NE,
SW
60 + 60 - 77 G, C, B Blue Pine Rhabdosia
Bhaatal

2500 -
2550
SE,
SW
50 + 60 - 75 G, C, B Silver
Fir
Berberis
Sara
Reserve
Forest

2525 -
2850
SE,
SW
50 + 70 - 85 G, C, B Kharsu
Oak
Berberis
Tundah
Wildlife
Sanctuary

2600 -
2700
SE,
NW
60 + 80 - 100 G, C, B Blue
Pine
Indigofera
Thathana
Reserve
Forest
2050 -
2200
NW 60 + 70 - 85 G, C, B Blue
Pine
Rhabdosia
a
Present at <300 m.
b
G - Grazing, C - Cutting, B - Burning.
c
Chir Pine - Pinus roxburghii, Blue Pine - Pinus wallichiana, Ban Oak - Quercus leucotrichophora,
Kharsu Oak - Quercus semecarpifolia, Silver Fir - Abies pindrow.

Although, the species is easily detected by
call, it is extremely difficult to locate the exact spot
in the habitat which the bird is using. Therefore, all
habitat plots within areas of calling were presumed
as being used by the bird at a
particular time. Habitat


variables were measured in some of these plots
selected randomly. Sites where no cheer calls were
heard even after call playback were selected as
vacant sites. I selected vacant sites within the same
study areas where calling sites were located. This
was done to eliminate the effect of hunting on the
data since hunting may remove individuals of a
population from an area suitable for cheer pheasant.
Whereas within an area of suitable habitat, it is
highly unlikely that cheer are hunted out from one
site and not from others. In this study, cheer
inhabitated mainly open areas with few trees and
saplings, dense cover of tall grass and moderate
shrub cover up to 1 m tall. Local land use practices
of seasonal grass cutting and burning and cattle
grazing have probably maintained the cheer habitat.
However, with an ever-increasing human pressure,
these previously seasonal activities are now, to
some extent, being carried out throughout the year.
Habitat degradation has assumed such proportions
that many areas were bare and eroded with
practically no regeneration at all. Reducing human
pressure, modifying traditional methods of land use
and enforcing stringent penalties on poaching will
probably help to prevent the march of this species
towards extinction.

Table 3. Differences in vegetation characteristics of habitat plots at calling sites and vacant sites
in seven study areas.
Calling Sites Vacant Sites
Habitat Variable Mean S.D. Range Mean S.D. Range t Sig.

Tree density (no/m
2
) 0.0080.001 0 - 0.02 0.0140.003 0 - 0.04 0.798 N.S.
Tree basal area (m
2
/0.05
ha)

12.711.767 0 - 30.19 17.497.831 0 - 21.7 1.057 N.S.
Canopy cover (%) 20.721.457 0 32 50.378.056 0 - 87.5 0.831 N.S.
Canopy height (m) 5.930.517 0 12 4.940.192 0 - 11.83 1.750 N.S.
Sapling density (no/m
2
)

0.0040.001 0 - 0.02 0.0240.010 0 - 0.13 1.298 N.S.
Shrub density (no/m
2
)

0.280.025 0.06 0.56 0.950.151 0 - 2.81 1.997 *
Shrub cover (%) at 0.5 m

76.785.088 1 100 63.328.769 0 100 2.225 *

51.665.380 0 100 41.338.100 0 100 2.141 *

13.372.242 0 - 35.66 45.6311.274 0 100 0.500 N.S.
Shrub cover height (cm)

90.228.749 28.6 - 175 109.2021.954 0 - 170.5 1.384 N.S.
Shrub FHD 0.820.048 0 - 1.07 0.700.100 0 - 1.1 2.208 *
Ground cover (%) 86.851.897 70 - 100 71.015.101 17.5 - 97.5 2.057 *
Ground cover height
(cm)
31.256.556 2.38 - 87.3 35.629.806 3.9 - 98.6 0.168 N.S.

t =Paired ttest, * p <0.05 (one-tailed), D.f. =6

Acknowledgements

I thank the Chief Wildlife Warden, Himachal
Pradesh for permission to study cheer in the wild.
Thanks are due to the Oriental Bird Club and
World Pheasant Association-South Asia Regional
Office for providing financial support. I am grateful
to Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Principal, M.L.N. College,
Yamuna Nagar, Haryana for encouragement and
permission for leave from the college. Dr. Rahul
Kaul, Mr. Sanjeeva Pandey, I.F.S., Dr. Virinder
Sharma and Mr. J itinder S. J androtia gave advice
and information on cheer sites. Dr. Vinod Pandya
and Dr. Harsh Mohan helped with fieldwork. I
thank all these persons for extending generous
support.


References

Garson, P. J . (1983). The Cheer Pheasant Catreus
wallichii in Himachal Pradesh Western
Himalayas: An update. J. World Pheasant Ass.
8: 29-39.
Garson, P. J ., Young, L. & Kaul, R. (1992)
Ecology and conservation of the Cheer Pheasant
Catreus wallichii: Studies in the wild and the
progress of a reintroduction project. Biological
Conservation 59: 25-35.
Gaston, A. J . (1987) Maps of recent pheasant
observations in Himalayas. Pp. 65-77 in C. D.
W. Savage and M. W. Ridley, eds. Pheasants in
Asia 1982. New Delhi, India: Rekha
Printers/World Pheasant Association.
Gaston, A. J . & Singh, J . (1980) The Status of the
cheer pheasant Catreus wallichii in the Chail
Wildlife Sanctuary Himachal Pradesh. J. World
Pheasant Ass. 5: 68-73.
Gaston, A. J . Garson, P. J . & Hunter, M. L. (1981)
Present distribution and status of pheasants in
Himachal Pradesh Western Himalaya. J. World
Pheasant Ass. 27: 291-314.
J androtia, J . S., Sharma, V. & Katoch, S. S. (1996)
A pheasant survey in the Ravi catchment of
Chamba District Himachal Pradesh India. Ann.
Rev. W.P.A. 1994/95: 67-74.
McGowan, P. J . K. & Garson, P. J . (1995)
Pheasants: Status survey and conservation
action plan 1995-1999. Gland, Switzerland:
I.U.C.N.
Sharma, V. & Pandey S. (1989) Pheasant surveys
in the Shimla Hills of Himachal Pradesh India.
J. World Pheasant Ass. 14: 64-78.

Rajiv S. Kalsi. Department of Zoology,
M.L.N. College, Yamuna Nagar 135 001,
Haryana, India. e-mail: rkalsi@vsnl.com

Important areas and habitat preferences of the Palawan Peacock
Pheasant Polyplectron emphanum

Introduction

The Palawan Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron
emphanum is a Vulnerable (Collar et al 1994)
species endemic to the Philippines island of
Palawan. Its traditionally documented habitat of the
primary forests of the coastal plains (King 1981) is
rapidly disappearing (e.g. Quinnell & Balmford
1988). Consequently, P. emphanum is becoming
increasingly restricted to higher altitudes
(McGowan et al. 1989). P. emphanum is threatened
by continuing and accelerating forest alteration, and
hunting, egg collecting (subsistence) and trapping
for the pet trade (McGowan & Garson 1995), with
the estimated global population of <10,000 thought
to be in rapid decline (Collar et al.1994).
The main aims of this project were to document
important sites and habitats for the species and
obtain population density data for this and other
threatened and endemic bird species of Palawan.
Specifically, the project aimed to investigate the
influence habitat has on the dispersal of display
scrapes of male P. emphanum and study the calling
behaviour of the males.

Study sites

Surveys were conducted at five study sites in
forests over three different soil types (Table 1)
between October 1999 and February 2000 by
David Lee (DL) and Mark Whiffin (MW). Surveys
were conducted to achieve reasonable evenness in
survey effort across soil type.


Table 1: Description of the five study sites surveyed.

Study site Fix
1

Soil type Altitude
Human disturbance
St Pauls Subterranean River
National Park (SPSRNP)
N 1011.978'
E 11854.731'
Limestone 10-240m None
Panaguman, Marofinas N 1013.376'
E 11857.140'
Shale and
sandstone
100-340m Hunting - attendant trails and shelters
Port Barton N 1024.654'
E 11811.220'
Shale and
sandstone
70-300m Some areas selectively logged up to 1989;
pig trapping in adjacent forest
Trident, Narra N 0919.430'
E 11821.757'
Ultrabasic 180-650m Collection of almaciga resin (Agathis
dammara) - attendant trails; possibly hunting
Dumanguena, Aborlan N 0926.811'
E 11825.264'
Ultrabasic 200-580m Localised small-scale logging; P. emphanum
trapping
2

1
- fix taken from study site base camp, except for Panaguman site where fix is from start of transect
2
- since the 1960s (Caleda 1986)

Methods

Two methods, conducted concurrently within the
same survey period, were used to survey P.
emphanum: a point count sampling method
(Buckland et al. 1993; J ones et al. 1995) and a
variable-width line transect method (Buckland et al.
1993). Point count stations were positioned 200m
apart along line transects, surveyed from 06:30-
12:00 and repeated once the following day. At each
station an initial count period of 10 minutes was
used to record all bird species. A further 10 minutes
period was sampled exclusively for P. emphanum
to increase expected low encounter rates of the
species (e.g. McGowan et al. 1989). After each 20
minute count period, the 200m to the next station
was walked at 1km/h with the observer collecting
perpendicular distance data on any flushed
individuals or calling males. The survey methods
followed the normal assumptions of Distance
sampling (Buckland et al. 1993).

The location of display scrape aggregates were
determined from the position of calling males
recorded along survey transects. DL and MW swept
the area to try and locate all maintained scrapes and
boundaries of the calling site. Caleda et al. (1987)
record that male P. emphanum maintain an
aggregate of 1-16 scrapes, although there is
inherent difficulty in deciding upon what comprises
a single aggregate. An arbitrary limit of 50m
between nearest adjacent scrapes was used to
separate areas assumed to be utilised for displaying
by different males.
Habitat structure was assessed within a 20m radius
plot surrounding each of the census stations and
scrape clusters located. The selection of habitat
variables for measuring, counting or estimating at
each plot largely follow McGowan et al. (1989)
and McGowan (1994), who in turn considered the
approach of Dueser and Shugart (1978), although
only regarded more general habitat structure
parameters.

At Narra we collected male calling data over two
survey periods of seven days, in November 1999
and February 2000. Calls were recorded from a
vantage point between 06:30 18:00 on
consecutive days. Calling data collected included
call bout start and finish times, number of calls
during a bout, and direction and distance of the
calling male from the vantage point. This
established the position of calling centres,
identification of individual males, and calling
frequency and its variability.

Results
Encounter rates

A total of 438 point counts and 78.4 km of transects
were surveyed over the five study sites and yielded
22 and 14 P. emphanum encounters respectively
(Table 2). The majority of P. emphanum
encounters were of calling males (n =31): sightings
were very infrequent and all


of females (n =5). Any inferences on site encounter
rates must consider survey period (St Pauls in
December 1999, Panaguman and Port Barton in
J anuary 2000, Trident and Dumanguena in
February 2000) and the associated sporadic nature
of male calling behaviour (McGowan et al 1989).

P. emphanum was encountered within all altitudinal
bands of 100m at each of the five study sites, and
ranged from sea level (SPSRNP) to 620m
(Trident), the maximum altitude surveyed. No
encounters were made in the limestone karst or
coastal forests of SPSRNP, on ridge tops, or within
50m of running water or 100m of the edge of forest
blocks.

Table 2: Survey effort and encounter rates of P. emphanum stratified by method and soil type.
(SPSRNP =St. Pauls Subterranean River National Park)

Point counts Line transects Soil type
Survey
effort
(no.)
Man
hours
No.
encounters
Encounter
rate
(per hour)
Survey
effort
(km)
Man
hours
No.
encounters
Encounter
rate
(per hour)
Limestone of
SPSRNP
132 44.0 3 0.02 23.6 23.6 8 0.34
Shale/sandstone of Port
Barton and Panaguman
166 55.3 12 0.22 30.0 30.0 3 0.10
Ultrabasic soils of
Trident and Dumanguena
140 46.7 7 0.15 24.8 24.8 3 0.12
Total 438 146 22 0.15 78.4 78.4 14 0.18

Habitat associations

Initial analyses using Mann Whitney U tests
suggest differences between display scrape
microhabitat plots and count stations which are
assumed not to be scrape sites. Display scrape plots
had significantly higher numbers of large trees of
girth at breast height (gbh) >320cm (p <0.001),
320cm >gbh >160cm (p <0.01), 160cm >gbh >
80cm (p <0.001), and smaller trees of size gbh <
10cm (p <0.01), greater numbers of palms (p <
0.001), fewer tree falls (p <0.05), and were
associated with the absence of water (p < 0.01). Of
those variables estimated, there appears to be
significantly more foliage at the mid-canopy level
at display scrapes (p <0.001), and more low level
foliage (p <0.001) and ground level foliage (p <
0.001) at point count plots. Principal component
analysis will be used to account for autocorrelations
amongst the habitat variables and to reduce the
number of habitat measurements in the final
analysis.

Calling behaviour

Call counting during November and February
yielded 41 and 22 calling bouts respectively,
although these data are currently being adjusted
according to actual focal study period (since
Februarys data were largely affected by adverse
weather conditions). Despite difficulties in
establishing the exact location of calling males, due
to terrain, vegetation cover, wind and rain, and
background noise, the position of the six calling
males recorded within the study area of
approximately 50ha (0.5km
2
) differed little between
study periods. The identification of a seventh male
may have occurred in February, but because of
weather conditions it is possible that one male was
recorded in two adjacent localities.

Discussion

Our encounter rates were higher overall than those
recorded by McGowan et al. (1989), but confirm
their statement that, although P. emphanum may
not be especially common, it is probably not
particularly rare in suitable habitat. These
differences in encounter rates may be attributed to
variability between the sites and methods employed
in the two studies, making direct comparison
inappropriate. McGowan et al. (1989) used a point
count method with an
extended count period of 30


minutes at stations 100m apart during J uly-
September at a site in central Palawan not visited
during our study. Since the breeding season is
assumed to be February-April (McGowan et al.
1989) then the higher encounter rates of calling
males during our study are not unsurprising.

The variables that differ significantly between
scraped areas and non-scraped areas infer scrape
site locality may be associated with the degree of
local forest disturbance. Small patches of altered
microhabitat, created by tree falls, foster the
development of different vegetation to that of the
surrounding forest (Brokaw 1985) with understorey
foliage more abundant in gaps than in forest
understorey (Blake & Hoppes 1986). Those
variables found to be significantly greater at non-
scrape sites are associated with gap formation.
Whereas variables associated with locally
undisturbed forest, such as a defined tree size
structure and greater foliage at higher levels, were
significantly associated with scraped areas. Scraped
areas are not found to be associated with water,
which is in agreement with information offered by
local pheasant trappers. Behaviourally, the noise of
running water may mask calling bouts, and
ecologically vegetation associated with these
aquatic edge habitats (e.g. a dense understorey)
may in some way be unsuitable for calling from.

Although not the primary purpose of the call
counting method, the potential and problems of
using such an approach for mapping calling males
and in producing density estimates of the adult male
population were emphasised during the project. The
density estimate of 12 calling males/km
2
from this
study should not be compared to Caleda (1986)
(8.5 34.0 males per km
2
) due to differences in
topography and soil type and use of different
methods in the two studies.

Work is required to produce a complete and
accurate picture of the distribution of P. emphanum
with an emphasis on highlighting those localities
that remain ecologically intact and relatively
undisturbed. The future conservation of P.
emphanum requires a detailed knowledge of its
tolerance of different types and degrees of habitat
alteration on the island. We aim to continue our
work on Palawan for a further two years. Our aims
include surveying areas of the island as yet
unstudied, quantifying the nature of suitable habitat,
assessing variability in male calling behaviour, and
considering whether the characteristics of male
calls can be used as the basis for surveying adult
breeding males.

Acknowledgements

Research was undertaken in close collaboration
with Roger Wilkinson (Chester Zoo) and Marc
Boussekey (Espace Zoologique St Martin la Plane).
We wish to thank Chester Zoo, Zooparc de
Beauval, British Airways Assisting Conservation,
World Pheasant Association (particularly Phil
McGowan and Nicola Chalmers-Watson), Paignton
Zoo, Twycross Zoo, Thigby Hall Wildlife Gardens
and Christine Shepherd. In Palawan, our thanks go
to Peter Widmann (Philippine Cockatoo
Conservation Project), Roy Girdler, the Major of
Narra Municipality, and Barangay Captains of
Trident, Port Barton, and Dumanguena. We also
thank David J eggo and Pete Garson for much
needed support along the way.

References

Blake, J .G. & Hoppes, W.G. (1986).
Influence of resource abundance on use of
tree-fall gaps by birds in an isolated woodlot.
Auk 103: 328-340.
Brokaw, N.V.L. (1986). Tree-falls, re-growth
and community structure in tropical forests.
In: Pickett, S.T.A. & White, P.S. (eds.),
The ecology of natural disturbance and
patch dynamics, pp. 53-69.
Academic Press, New York.
Buckland, S.T., Anderson, D.R., Burnham,
K.P. & Laake, J .L. (1993). Distance
Sampling: Estimating Abundance of
Biological Populations. Chapman and Hall,
London.
Caleda, M.R., Lanante, R.E. & Viloria, E.F.
(1987). Preliminary studies of the Palawan
Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron emphanum.
In: Ridley, M.W. (ed.), Pheasants in Asia
1986 (unpaginated). World Pheasant
Association, Lower Basildon, UK.
Caleda, M.R. (1986). Conservation of the
Palawan Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron
emphanum: Status Report. Unpubl. ms.
Collar, N.J ., Crosby, M.J . & Stattersfield,
A.J . (1994). Birds to Watch 2: The World
List of Threatened Birds. Birdlife
Conservation Series No. 4, Birdlife
International, Cambridge, UK.
Dueser, R.D. & Shugart, H.H. (1978).
Microhabitats in a forest floor small mammal
fauna. Ecology 59: 89-98.
King, W.B. (1981). The Red Data Book, Vol.


2: Aves. IUCN, Morgues, Switzerland.
McGowan, P.J .K. (1994). Display dispersion
and microhabitat use by the Malaysian
Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron malacense in
Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Tropical
Ecology 10: 229-244.
McGowan, P. J . K. & Garson, P. J . (1995).
Pheasants: Survey Status and Conservation
Action Plan 1995-1999. IUCN, Gland,
Switzerland.
McGowan, P. J . K., Hartley, I. R. & Girdler,
R.P. (1989). The Palawan Peacock Pheasant:
Habitats and Pressures. Journal of the World
Pheasant Association 14: 80-99.
Quinnell, R. & Balmford, A. (1988). A future
for Palawans forests? Oryx 22(1): 30-35.

David C. Lee, Mark Whiffin & Stuart J.
Marsden. Applied Ecology Group, Dept. of
Environmental and Geographical Sciences,
Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester
Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK.

Studies of Activity of Reevess pheasant Syrmaticus reevesii by
radiotelemetry in Dongzhai Nature Reserve, China

The Reevess pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) is a
rare species native to central and eastern China
(Zheng & Wang 1998). As the wild population has
been declining quickly in the recent years, World
Pheasant Association and BirdLife International
have listed it as a Vulnerable species. In China, the
Reevess Pheasant has been listed as Grade 2
nationally protected species since 1989, but
recently most researchers suggest it should be
change to Grade 1 according to its status and
threats (Zheng & Wang 1998). There have been
several studies of this species in China since the
1960s, but most were short-term and concentrated
on biology and populations (Wu 1979, 1994; Hu &
Wang 1981; Song & Qu 1996; Xu 1995). From
December 1999, with the encouragement of Dr.
Peter Garson and the Pheasant Specialist Group
and WPA, we initiated a research project entitled
Studies on habitat selection and home range of
Reeves pheasant Syrmaticus reevesii by using
radiotracking techniques. This project will last for
three years from December 1999 to December
2002. As an initial output, this paper reports some
preliminary results of our studies.

Study Area & Methods

The study area is located in Dongzhai Bird Nature
Reserve of Henan Province, on the northern slope
of Dabie mountain (11418' - 11430'E; 3128' -
3209'N). The altitude of this reserve is between
100m and 840m. It is warm and humid with a mean
annual temperature of 15.1
0
C. The annual rainfall
is 740-1520mm and the frost-free period is 227
days.

Field observations began in December 1999, and
radiotracking took place from March to August
2000. A total of nine male pheasants were
radiotracked during this period. Transmitters were
necklaced after birds were trapped by snaring early
in the breeding season. The birds were released
when tagged and monitored every half an hour. The
expected life of the transmitter is 5 months. The
receiver is a TRX-1000S used with a 3-element
directional antenna. Locations of each radio-tagged
bird were fixed 2 or 3 times each day, and 2 full
days tracking were conducted each month with the
interval of 10 minutes.

When Reevess pheasants were observed, the
following variables were recorded: location, slope
position, altitude and habitat type used, as well as
the number, sex and behaviour of the birds. The
slope position was defined as the relative position
used by pheasant on the slope of mountain which
we divided into 3 categories: top-part (topmost
third of a slope), mid-part (middle third of a slope)
and low-part (lowest third of the slope). The radio-
location data were analysed using the software of
McPaal (Version 1.21, December 1985). The home
range of the Reeves pheasant was calculated by
three methods (MCP, 95% Ellipse and 95% HMT).

Results
Habitat Type


From field observations and radiotracking, we
found that the Reeves pheasants occurred in seven
habitat types in the study area: (1) Coniferous &
deciduous mixed forest. The dominant trees are
Castanea, Quercus, Celtis, Liquidambarya,
Platycarya and Pinus massoniana. The canopy of
this forest is usually dense but the undergrowth is
sparse; (2) Tea farmland & Cropland. Used by
local people seasonally. (3) Young growth forest
with trees replanted usually in the second year after
clear-cut. Cunninghamia lanceolata is widely
planted in these places because it is fast-growing.
(4) Bush - mainly composed of Exochoda
racemosa, Vitex negundo, Lindera glauca, young
Quercus etc. (5) Broadleaf forest. Castanea,
Quercus, Celtis, Liquidambarya, and Platycarya
are the dominant tree species. (6) Bamboo forest.
Pleioblastus heteroclada and P. pubescens are the
two major species of bamboo. (7) Coniferous forest
- dominant tree species is Cunninghamia
lanceolata.

We found Reevess pheasant were more selective
of some habitats than others (
2
=93.5, p < 0.001).
Coniferous & deciduous mixed forest, tea farm &
cropland and young growth of forest were the
favorite habitat types used by the pheasant, while
brush, broadleaf forest and bamboo forest were less
used habitats with few observations. Reeves
Pheasant preferred to use the coniferous forest in
winter presumably because it could provide good
cover and food supplies.

Home range and activities

Home ranges of the pheasant remained relatively
stable throughout the study period. The radiotagged
males usually wandered a small distance from the
trapping site and returned to the area where they
were caught within 48 hours after release. The
home range of Reevess pheasant varies with the
season. In the non-breeding season, the species
prefers to live on the sunny slopes, whilst in the
breeding season, its range expands to other
locations and habitats. Table 1 shows home range
sizes for one male pheasant (080) in different stages
of the breeding season. Although the size varied
with calculating method, the general trend is
maintained i.e. the largest home range occurred in
the middle period.

Table 1. The home range of a male Reeves Pheasant (080) in Dongzhai Nature Reserve.

Dates Radio-
locations
Good-
locations
Home range Size (ha)
MCP 95% Ellipse 95%HMT
Mar.30Apr.20 96 88 5.1 8.5 7.5
Apr.21May 20 98 87 6.5 9.4 15.3
May 21J un.24 73 62 4.9 8.0 13.7


31
In the study area, the breeding season commenced
in late March. The male spends more time in
walking, feeding and displaying from then on, and
its range expands. According to the observations of
male 080, we found it mainly live in the coniferous
& deciduous mixed forest on the sunny slopes from
March to middle April. In late April, its home range
begins to expand from the mixed forest to the
nearby habitats, including the young growth areas
not used in other seasons. After early J une, it
restricted its home range to the mixed forest of
Quercus acutissima and Pinus massoniana and the
range size decreased.

According to the radiotracking results, we also
found that Reevess Pheasant used the space within
the home range unevenly. In terms of the activities
and the behaviors of the birds, we divided the home
range into several small patches, such as the
feeding sites, resting sites, displaying sites, roosting
sites and the transitional area. Feeding sites were
situated mainly in the relative smooth areas near the
ridge of the mountain with sunny slopes and less
disturbance. The Reevess Pheasant spent most of
its time at feeding sites. The digging marks and
dust-bathing sites could be found at or near feeding
sites. Roosting sites were located in the lower parts
of the mountain with a number of large trees in
which the pheasant could perch at night. Without
disturbance, individuals could use the same
roosting site for more than 2 weeks. Transitional
areas were corridors connecting different patches.
As there was poor coverage of vegetation in these
areas, the pheasant used the areas only when
moving from one patch to another. By following
the radiotagged birds, we found that pheasants
started to leave the roosting tree at about 05h30,
walked through the transition areas and arrived at
feeding sites about one hour later. and then spent
most time at feeding sites or nearby areas. At 17h30
they started to move to roosting sites and flew to
the perching trees about an hour later. Reevess
Pheasant normally has two peaks of feeding
activity, one in the early morning from 05h30 to
09h00, and another in the late afternoon from
15h00 to 18h30.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Prof.Qu Wenyuan and Prof. Li
Yanjuan, Henan Normal University for suggestions
about our research, and Dongzhai Bird Nature
Reserve staff for logistic support; and especially for
Mr. Du Zhi Yong, for assisting with radiotracking.
We especially thank Mr. H. J ames Goodhart for his
donations to this research via WPA. The Reevess
Pheasant Research Project is also supported by the
State Key Basic Research and Development Plan
(G 2000046805), the National Natural Science
Foundation (No. 39830030) of China, WPA-
International, and WPA-USA.

References

Hu, Xiaolong & Wang, Qishan (1981).
Studies on ecology of Reevess pheasant
Syrmaticus reevesii. China J. of Zool. (4):
39-44.
Song Chaoshu & Qu Wenyuan (1996). The
Scientific Expedition of the Dongzhai Bird
Nature Reserve. Beijing, Chinese Forestry
Publishing House.
Wu Zhi-kang, Li Zhu-mei and Wang J i-huai
(1993-1994). Progress in research on reeves
pheasant in China. Annual Review of the
World Pheasant Association. pp 39-43.
Wu, Zhikang & Xu, Weishu (1987). A study
on Distribution and abundance of Reevess
pheasant in Guizhou. China Zool. Res. 8(1):
13-19.
Wu, Zhikang 1979 Ecology of Reevess
pheasant Syrmaticus reevesii. China J. of
Zool. (3): 16-18.
Xu, Yangong, Yin, Zuohua, Lei, Fuming et al
(1996). Acta Zoologica Sinica. 6(42): 155.
Zheng,Guangmei & Wang Qshan (1998).
China Red Data Book for Animals: Aves.
Beijing, Science Press.

Zhang Zhengwang & Sun Quanhui. Key
Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecological
Engineering, Ministry of Education College of
Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, 100875,
Beijing, China.


32
Long-term change of a Tibetan eared-pheasant population in the
Lhasa mountains, Tibet

Long-term changes in animal populations are of
great importance and yet usually little is known
of the mechanism underlying these changes. For
pheasants occurring in their native habitats, little
information has been published about annual
variation of population abundance.
Tibetan eared-pheasant Crossoptilon harmani is
endemic to the Tibetan plateau and has only
recently been recognized as a full species (Sibley
& Monroe 1990, Cheng 1994). Besides
inhabiting forest habitats in eastern Tibet (Lu
and Zheng 2000), this species also occurs in
relatively poor shrub vegetation typical of
mountains around the mid-Yaluzangbu River
(54.8 % of 127,800 km
2
of the whole distribution
range of this species). In 1993, a survey on
population number and reproductive

Fig. 1. Annual change in spring population of Tibetan eared pheasant in Xiong Se area
of Lhasa mountains, Tibet

.

biology was made in Xiong Se area (2927N,
9140E, 125 ha) of Lhasa mountain (Liu et al.
1994). Since 1995, we have been working on
ecology and behaviour of the eared-pheasant
population at the same study area (Lu 1997).

During the non-breeding season, the eared-
pheasants live in family flocks with stable
membership. Poor vegetation restricted the
flocks foraging activity to narrow stream belts.
Night-roost sites are used all year round. It was
thus possible to locate home ranges and night-
roost sites of all the flocks over the study area.
The birds do not suffer hunting or changes in
agricultural practice. The sparse vegetation cover
and relative tameness of the birds under
protection of local Buddhists allowed us to carry
out behavioural observations for extended
periods. In spring, we counted all the flocks in
their night-roost sites or diurnal activity ranges.

Data on those flock sizes were pooled yearly as
an indicator of spring population over the study
area.
The results (Fig. 1) showed that in 1993, the
population of Tibetan eared-pheasants in the

0
50
100
150
200
1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l


33
study area was around 150 birds (Liu et al.
1994), but only around 100 in 1996. Although
we did not visit the study area between 1994 and
1995, information provided by local people
showed that several foraging patches and night-
roost sites became abandoned during this period.
We therefore believe that the population
declined over these two years. From 1997 to
1998, the population size continued to decrease,
reaching a low point of about 70 birds in 1999.
Then, the population rose rapidly in 2000 to the
level nearly equal to that of 1993. In another
study site, J ia Ma (2940N, 9140E), villagers
also observed a decline in the eared-pheasant
population in 1994 and 1995, suggesting spatial
synchrony in population change.

The four years of data that we have collected on
weather, vegetation and ecology of the eared
pheasants in the study area do not seem to
explain the mechanism underlying the population
change. A long-term population investigation is
being planned.

References

Cheng, T.H. (1994). A complete checklist of
species and subspecies of Chinese birds.
Science Press, Beijing.
J ohnsgard, P.A. (1999). The pheasants of the world
(2nd ed.) Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington, D.C.
Liu, S.C., Ciren, & Ciren, Z.X. (1994). Studies on
ecology of Tibetan eared-pheasant. J . Tibet.
Univ. 9: 5-8.
Lu, X. (1997). Study on habitat selection and
behavior of Tibetan eared-pheasant
Crossoptilon harmani. Ph.D.
thesis, Beijing Normal University.
Lu, X., & Zheng, G.M. (2000). Why do eared-
pheasants of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet plateau
show so much morphological variation? Bird
Conserv. Int. 10: 305309.
Sibley, C.G., & Monroe, J r. B. L. (1990).
Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the
world. Yale University Press, New Haven

Lu Xin. Department of Zoology, College of Life
Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P. R.
China, email: luxinwh@public.wh.hb.cn
Zheng Guangmei. Department of Ecology,
College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal
University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China

Galliformes in Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary of Kachchh, Gujurat,
India: a management perspective

Introduction

Reclamation of forest by humans has been the main
cause for declines in many bird species. In addition,
hunting is also a widespread threat. Galliforms have
been affected by both factors for a long time as
members of this order have been widely hunted
either for pleasure or commercial purposes.
However, in India no proper step has been taken to
check their population status, even in protected
areas. An attempt was made to do this during
J anuary 1998 to December 1998 in the Narayan
Sarovar Sanctuary (NSS), Gujarat, India where
mining activities are a severe threat to all wildlife.

Study area

The Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary (NSS) lies between
23
0
27-23
0
42N and 68
0
30-68
0
57E. In 1981, it
covered an area of 768 km
2
which, after recent de-
notification, has been reduced to 443 km
2
(1995).
The Kori creek bounds the sanctuary on the
northwest and mangrove forest on the west. There
are no prominent land features on the eastern,
northern and southern sides, but the northeastern
part is interspersed with small hill ranges, extending
east to west. This sanctuary harbours the last
remnants of the true thorn forests of Kachchh,
India. The flat to undulating terrain has stands of


34
Acacia nilotica, A. senegal, Salvadora oleoides and
S. persica, with Euphorbia nivulia, Capparis
decidua and Zizyphus nummularia shrubs
interspersed with grass patches. Some of the areas
are encroached and dominated by the exotic
Prosophis juliflora. Rainfall is low and erratic and
the maximum and minimum temperature is between
40
0
and 10
0
C. A few ephemeral rivers and rivulets
drain the sanctuary. There were 56 villages inside
the sanctuary before de-notification and presently
only 32 villages are inside. The total human
population inside the sanctuary is 11,200 (1991
census) with 14,400 livestock (1992 census).

Methods

To carry out a systematic survey, the old sanctuary
boundaries (before de-notification) were
superimposed on the 1:50,000 Survey of India
topographical map and the area was divided into 5
x 5 km grids. In total, around 40 such grids fell
within the sanctuary limits. These larger grids were
further subdivided into 1 x 1km subgrids. Due to
constraint in time and manpower it was decided that
at least 10% of the area would be surveyed. In total
76 grids were selected at random for the study.
Care was taken that at least one subgrid would be
selected in each large grid so that the entire
sanctuary is well represented.

Census was done in such a way to minimise the
number of microhabitats and birds missed within
each grid. Similarly, caution was taken to avoid
repetition. The time taken for the census of a grid
varied from 1.2 hrs to 1.4 hrs depending on the type
of terrain. During census all the bird species and
their abundance were recorded systematically in
order to understand associations between
Galliforms and other group of birds.

Results

Five species of Galliforms, namely Grey Francolin
(Francolinus pondicerianus), Black Francolin
(Francolinus francolinus) Rock Bush-Quail
(Perdicula argoondah), Indian Peafowl (Pavo
cristatus), Rain Quail (Coturnix coromandelica)
were recorded in the NSS. Of the five species, the
Indian Peafowl is virtually endemic to India
(Manakadan et al., 1998). The status of each
species in NSS is discussed as follows.

Grey Francolin
Grey Francolin is one of the common Galliforms in
NSS. A total of 452 individuals was recorded in
137 sightings during the survey. It occurred in
approx. 79 % of grids surveyed. Of the classified
vegetation types (6), abundance of Grey Francolin
was higher in Acacia patch (126) and mixed
vegetation type (134) followed by hedges in, and
around, the cultivated land (84). Their abundance
was almost equal in other vegetation types.
Although Grey Francolins were abundant in the
mixed vegetation without Acacia spp, their
abundance was higher where Acacia spp. occurred.
Of the two species of Acacia, A. nilotica supports
larger number of birds than the mixed vegetation
type. The result showed the species to prefer
vegetation types dominated by Acacia spp., or
where Acacia spp. are at least present. Habitat
selection can only be effectively explored for a bird
species when their food and nesting behaviours are
studied and such work is needed to explain the
selection of vegetation types containing Acacia spp.

Black Francolin
Black Francolin is an uncommon resident. Ali
(1945) reported that this bird is fairly common bird,
but far less numerous than the Grey Partridge in the
Kachchh District of Gujarat. We found this to be
clearly the case in NSS in Kachchh. In total, 28
individuals were recorded during the survey, mostly
near cultivated land and especially in maize crops.
Very few individuals were observed in grasslands.

Rock Bush-Quail
Rock Bush-Quail is a rare and resident bird in the
NSS. Ali (1945) reported that this bird is fairly
common in Kachchh District of Gujarat. A total of
only six Rock Bush-Quails was sighted and all the
sightings were on grass and fallowlands.

Indian Peafowl
Indian Peafowl is a common and resident bird in
the NSS. Ali (1945) also reported it to be fairly
common in Kachchh District of Gujarat. The
species was seldom recorded inside the grids
themselves, but a fairly good number of them (c.
>100) were seen near human habitation, being
especially associated with temples. As this bird is
considered sacred, it has been virtually tamed and
allowed to move freely near habitation.

Rain Quail
Rain Quail is a fairly rare resident of NSS - a total
of only seven individuals was sighted on two
occasions. All the sightings were on grass and
fallowlands.


35

Table 1. Abundance of Black Francolin, Rock
Bush-Quail, Indian Peafowl, and Rain Quail in
Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary.

Bird species Abundance/76 km
2

Black Francolin 28
Rock Bush-Quail 6
Indian Peafowl 11
Rain Quail 7

Discussion

Our findings indicate that, with the exception of
Grey Francolin and Indian Peafowl, galliforms
were scarce and patchily distributed within the
Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary. Both the quails were
sighted very infrequently and hence no conclusions
were possible as to their habitat preferences.
However, some preference is obvious in the case of
Grey Francolin. The result showed that the
distribution of Grey Francolins in different habitat
types was not uniform (
2
15.8, df =5, p=0.01).
Thus, we can be confident that Grey Francolin
preferred scrub forest, consisting of Acacia
senegal, A.nilotica, Prosopis cinerarea, Ziziphus
jujuba, Capparis aphyla, Salvadora oleoides, S.
persica and Grewia tenax.

Trapping of any galliform species was not observed
within NSS during the survey but traps were seen
set on the ground near a village on two occasions.
However, we believe that bird trapping is not as
serious a threat to galliforms as is habitat
destruction in this sanctuary.

Conservation measures

The long-term survival of these bird species at NSS
depends mainly on the availability of the above
habitats, the majority of which have been recently
converted to croplands. Denotification of part of
the sanctuary by the Government of Gujarat has
accelerated this process. Immediate attention has to
be paid to protection of these habitats from further
degradation with further monitoring of species
populations to proceed in parallel.

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Y. D. Singh, Director, Gujarat
Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj for his constant
encouragement and support during our study. The
Gujarat Forest Department is thanked for
permitting us to carry out the study in the Protected
Area.

References
Collar, N. J ., Crosby, M. J . & Stattersfield, A. J
(1994) Birds to watch 2, the world list of
threatened birds. Cambridge: Birdlife
International.
Manakadan, R., J . C. Daniel, A. R. Rahmani, M.
Inamdar & G. Ugra (1998). Standardized
English common names of the birds of the
Indian Subcontinent- A proposal. Buceros
3(2):55 pp. Bombay Natural History Society,
Mumbai.

V.Gokula. 7/153 A, Gurumoorthy Nagar,
Ammachatram, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu,
612103, South India
Justus Joshua. Gujarat Institute of Desert
Ecology, Patwadi Naka, Bhuj (Kachchh), Gujarat
370 001, India.

Pheasant Conservation and Management Issues at the Great
Himalayan National Park

Galliforms in the Great Himalayan National Park
(GHNP) constitute an important and spectacular
component of biodiversity. The GHNP is one of only
two national parks in the world with a population of
the endangered Western Tragopan Tragopan
melanocephalus. Another endangered pheasant, the


36
Cheer Catreus wallichi is present on the steep, south-
facing grassy slopes. Monal Lophophorus
impejanus, and Koklas Pucrasia macrolopha are in
abundant in the temperate forest zone while Kalij
Lophura leucomelanos occurs in small numbers
below 2,000m.

The GHNP is naturally protected on the northern,
eastern and southern boundaries because of areas
under permanent snow or with steep ridges. To
facilitate implementation of Conservation of
Biodiversity (CoB) Project an area up to 5 km from
the western periphery of the Park has been notified
as an Ecodevelopment Project Area (EPA) or
Ecozone. The EPA has an area of 327 km
2

(including 61 km
2
of Tirthan wildlife sanctuary)
with about 120 small villages, comprising 1400
households with a population of 11,000. Since the
Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972 does not
permit any habitation in the National Park, an area
of 90 km
2
in Sainj valley comprising of the two
villages of Shakti and Marore with a population of
66 has been notified as Sainj Wildlife Sanctuary.
After notification in 1994, these two villages,
although technically `outside' the National Park, are
physically located between two parts of GHNP.
Thus the total area under the National Park
administration is 1,171 km
2
.

At GHNP, the following factors are very
important:

The final notification of the Park (May 1999)
does not allow any grazing or habitat
disturbances under the Wildlife Protection Act,
1972. Such a drastic change is expected to
enhance the conservation of biological
diversity in the Park. It will be interesting to
monitor these changes in the coming years.
The post-settlement-of-rights situation is going
to affect the CoB process to a great extent:

1. Biological processes free of human
disturbances are expected to bring positive
changes in terms of biodiversity.
2. Restrictions on access to the park may have
some negative effect on the livelihood of the
local community: ways and means are to be
found to mitigate such effects.

Two problems recur frequently. First, stoppage
of local people's access to forest resources on
which they had previously depended for grazing
their cattle and for collecting medicinal herbs,
fuelwood. Second, there has been a dramatic and
sustained increase in the number of such
villagers who now claimthat they had traditional
rights in the Park, hence need to be paid
compensation upon the final notification.
At GHNP there is a great need to strike a
balance between CoB within the Park and
socio-economic development of the
communities living outside the Park.

Linking livelihood issues to Conservation of
Biodiversity of the Park is of paramount
importance but difficult to achieve. Recent
efforts to conserve biodiversity in GHNP
reconfirm the following generic problems:

The sustainability of biodiversity conservation
has necessitated an alternative approach to natural
resource management which aims to integrate the
interests of conservation with those of the nearby
resource-dependent communities.
A change fromlaw enforcement and use
restrictions towards a more participatory approach is
particularly important in remote rural areas of a
protected area like GHNP where biodiversity is
concentrated, where poverty tends to be pervasive,
and where the reach of government development
programs is often limited.
Activities such as morel fungus collection by the
villagers coincide with the pheasant egg-laying in
the wild. This may have been detrimental to wild
pheasant populations. This requires a new emphasis
on finding ways of deriving economic opportunities
frombiological resources which do not lead to
further losses of biodiversity.

Beyond the economic principles involved,
increasingly it is recognised as neither politically
feasible nor ethically justifiable to attempt to deny
local people the use of natural resources without
providing themwith alternative means of livelihood.

Two major factors which directly influenced
livelihood and conservation issues at GHNP are
(i) mindset, and (ii) mechanisms. Application of
participatory management of biodiversity through
involvement of both the local community and the
park staff is the basis for bringing changes in
attitude. At present, the park staff and community
members are passing through an experience of
change in their mindset towards the participatory
management of biodiversity.

GHNP management and livelihood issues: (A)
Microplan units, local communities and village
level institutions


37
In principle: The microplan recognises the need of
park staff and the local communities to undertake
developmental work in remote areas where the
usual development agencies find it difficult to
function. The microplans were to be based on an
institutional contract designed to bring benefits (to
the local communities through ecodevelopment
programmes) as well as responsibilities (of the local
communities to help conserve the natural resources
of GHNP). The Village Eco-development
Committee (VEDC) in each microplan unit is a
recognised village level organisation set up to carry
out the microplan activities. The main assumption,
here was that all the villagers but especially the
poor and women will be able to become part of the
process, leading to a participatory approach
through decision-making.

In practice: By and large, the microplan involves
all the villages in a particular micro-watershed. For
example, the microplan made for Tirthan watershed
covers 19 villages with a population of 1300 (it
becomes a macro-plan at local level). Considering
the difficult hilly terrain and distance of villages
from each other, it is difficult (rather impossible)
for all the people to participate in a dialogue.
Moreover, not all the households in a village
are dependent upon the parks resources.
Livelihood issues are largely related to the
poor, and womenfolk in the ecozone area.
Hence there is a need to work further with
local communities to incorporate realistic and
measurable reciprocal commitments that would
directly address GHNP conservation issues.
The gap between micro-level planning and its
implementation needs to be reduced so that the
local people do not start loosing interest in the
programme.

(B) Alternate income generation sources

In principle: The dependency of local
communities on the biodiversity of the park (herb
collection, sheep grazing etc.) will be reduced if
they are provided with alternative sources of
income.
In practice: Effecting a change in the profession of
a villager cannot be done merely by offering
alternate income generation packages. Distribution
of handlooms, bee-keeping boxes, tool kits, etc. did
not make much of difference to the community in
the ecozone of the GHNP. However, it can be done
more effectively in small groups as explained
below:

Lessons learnt and implemented:
Villagers participate only in programmes that
have the potential to enhance their incomes.
Most of the Village Ecodevelopment
Committees (VEDCs) are male-dominated.
Realizing that poverty is the main obstacle to
conservation, and that women are poorest in
the ecozone of GHNP, park officials have
attempted since J anuary 1999 to organize
womenfolk through Women Saving and Credit
Groups (WSCGs). These enable women below
poverty line to save their own money from
wages earned from project activities, and offer
credit to group members to invest in income
generation activities.
The local NGO is assisting the park staff in
carrying out these activities. Most of the wage-
oriented work such as preparation of nurseries,
plantation work, path repair etc. are being
given to these womens groups on a priority
basis. This in turn is expected to enhance the
saving capacity of women.
To start with 43 such groups (each group of 15
to 20 women) are being set up.
It is also expected that within the next two
years, womens groups will be able to take up
ex situ propagation of medicinal plants. All
such activities are going to increase the
economic empowerment of women in this hill
society.

In the long run, WSCGs are going to be sustainable
and will contribute to the conservation of the
biodiversity of the Park. Mechanisms are being
developed so that WSCGs strengthen a VEDC from
within. The whole micro-plan implementation
strategy is undergoing major changes due to
settlement of rights of the local people in the park.
Interaction with the villagers in most of the micro-
plan units indicates that their dependence upon the
biodiversity of the park will decrease if the
productivity of the land and forest near to their
villages is enhanced. Such an approach will help to
relate livelihood issues to the conservation of the
park.

Sanjeeva Pandey. Director, Great Himalayan
National Park, Shamshi Distt. Kullu PIN 175126
Himachal Pradesh, India. fax: 01902-65320,
email: dirchnp@nde.vsnl.net.in

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