ZLV Online

Abstrakt

Population dynamics of wild population of the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) was studied in the district Brandýs nad Labem (Czech Republic, Central Bohemia) between 2004 and 2011. The study included 30 hunting grounds covering an area of 30,381 ha. The influence of predator control by red fox (Vulpes vulpes), beech marten (Martes foina), pine marten (M. martes), magpie (Pica pica), carrion crow (Corvus corone), and wild boar (Sus scrofa) on the pheasant abundance was evaluated. Except for wild boar, the positive correlation between number of pheasants and predators (i.e. bag statistics) was found. Impact of climatic factors (i.e. rainfall, temperature, duration of sunshine) on the pheasant population dynamics was also investigated. Rainfall in breeding season was determined as the most important factor influencing the population dynamics of pheasants. Hand-reared pheasants are released during the breeding seasons in several hunting grounds (<5) in the study area in order to support the wild populations. The correlation between number of released individuals and total harvest was examined. Releasing of hand-reared animals did not appear to be an efficient management practice increasing a total harvest of pheasants in our study. A total of 1,185 primary proximal feathers was collected from harvested pheasants during the period of 2009 and 2011 in order to determine the proportion of juveniles and adults in each study year (2009 – juveniles 39.1%: adults 60.9%; 2010 – 48.3%: 51.7%; 2011 – 53.6%: 46.4%) and the population growth from spring to fall (2009 – 64.3%, 2010 – 93.4%, and 2011 – 115.3%).