Pennsylvania Game News - February 2017 - 15

P

HEASANT SEASON runs until
the end of February. And in those
Wildlife Management Units where
both roosters and hens can be harvested,
hens are released on public properties
during the late season, which this year
began Dec. 12.
But what about those birds released
earlier in the year?
What are the chances they're still out
there, waiting to be flushed and placed in
the hunter's game bag?
The answer might surprise you.
While there's truth to the notion most
pheasants released for hunting don't
survive all that long - whether they're
quickly harvested by hunters, eventually
taken by predators, or die of some other
cause like being struck by a vehicle -
recent research has revealed some exceptions to the rule; birds that following
release survive for months in the wild, and
likely still are available in the late season.
The Game Commission in 2015
conducted a study on pheasant harvest
rates to determine what percentage of
Game Commission-released pheasants
are taken by hunters, and shed light on
what might be done to further increase
that percentage.
Data collected in the study determined
the overall pheasant harvest rate was
nearly 50 percent, and it showed the
harvest rate was higher for pheasants
released on public lands as opposed to
private lands, and for birds released later
as opposed to earlier in the week.
But there also were findings about
the survivability of pheasants into the
late season.
For instance, a banded hen pheasant
released in Lawrence County Oct. 9, a
day prior to the 2015 junior pheasant
season opener, was harvested Feb. 19
- 133 days later. And a banded rooster
FEBRUARY 2017

released Nov. 5 in Washington County
was harvested on the last day of the
season Feb. 29 - a 116-day span. In all,
33 pheasants banded in the study and
released for the early season were taken
after Jan. 1.
While that's a tiny percentage of the
2,073 pheasants recovered in a study
where 5,566 pheasants were banded, it
still shows late-season opportunity exists.
Bob Boyd, who oversees the Game
Commission's pheasant propagation
program, said the survivability of agencyreleased pheasants likely has a lot to do
with how the birds are raised.
Over the years, the Game Commission
has refined its propagation procedures to
produce a hardier, wilder pheasant.
And these qualities no doubt help the
birds that aren't taken soon after release to
make a go of it where good habitat exists.
"Our pheasants are well-feathered,
beautiful, strong-fliers that aren't willing
to come back to the truck when released,
but are running to get away from it,"
Boyd said. "We take a lot of pride in the
quality birds we produce, and their wild
characteristics and overall health are obvious, especially when they're flushed from
cover in January or February."
That doesn't necessarily mean available pheasants are easy to find.
Game Commission wildlife biometrician Joshua Johnson documented reports
of recovered banded pheasants for the
harvest-rate study. And the late-taken
birds, he said, often were the product of
significant hunter effort.
"Most of the hunters I talked with
who were getting pheasants after Jan. 1
were putting a lot of miles on their boots
to find birds," Johnson said. "But they
put in the work and it paid off, and our
data shows some survivors are likely to
be out there."
15
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2017

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