Idaho Chapter Pheasant Program

Idaho For Wildlife Chapters are involved in a pheasant program to bolster wild pheasant populations in Idaho. They use special incubators, raise pheasant chicks to just the right age, and release young birds early in the year so they integrate into the wild pheasant population. Read the story to see to see how this program is different from pheasant programs in most states.
 

Raising the odds
June 17th, 2010
By Eric Barker of the Tribune

Members of Idaho for Wildlife are raising and releasing pheasant chicks in hope of seeing an increase in the number of birds in the wild.

PRINCETON - Jim Hagedorn of Viola wants to bring the good old days of pheasant hunting back, days when the bag limit was high and hunters limiting out was common.

"The only way to get them back is to get the brood stock back up to where they are nesting," he says.

To that end, Hagedorn and other members of Idaho for Wildlife have crafted homemade incubators and are raising and releasing hundreds of pheasant chicks on the Palouse. The idea is to jumpstart the population, particularly with hens, in order to produce more pheasants in future years.

"I remember back in the '60s and '70s, you could come out here, you didn't need a dog and you could limit out in half a day," he says.

The group has two pheasant chick incubators, one near Princeton and another outside of Moscow. The incubators have propane heaters and automatic feeders and water supplies. Each can produce multiple batches of about 400 pheasants. The tiny birds will be released when they are about 4 weeks old.

"We don't keep them more than 4 1/2 weeks or they lose their wildness. At 8 to 10 weeks old they are just like chickens and they don't want to leave."

The group has gotten some support with permits from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and some money to purchase feed from the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Other than that, it's an all-volunteer effort. But commission members have expressed interest in the strategy and directed the department to study its effectiveness.

Planting birds to boost the population is not a proven strategy. Many wildlife biologists and some hunting groups think it doesn't work well enough to justify the costs. The incubators cost about $1,500 to build, with some of the cost offset by donated materials. Then the baby birds have to be purchased, kept warm with propane heaters and fed a high-protein diet. If survival is low, the cost per bird can explode like a rooster taking flight. They prefer to concentrate on improving bird habitat and giving the wild population a better chance at growing.

But Hagedorn is convinced the strategy does work, especially in areas with good habitat but low bird numbers. He says the key is releasing young birds when they still have some wildness and focusing on hens instead of just roosters. He says there would never have been pheasants in North America if releasing captive birds didn't work.

"Where did the birds come from in the first place?" he asks rhetorically. "They were pen-raised birds."

Pheasants are non-native birds that were brought to the Americas from China in the 1800s.

Fish and Game biologists have partnered with the group and are now studying survival of birds released across the southern half of the state. Sal Palazzolo, a private lands and farm bill biologist for the department, says the idea of raising and releasing pheasants is not new. But using small incubators placed in the middle of good pheasant habitat is a different twist.

In southern Idaho, the department is marking roosters raised by the group and measuring how many are killed by hunters in the fall. That will give them an idea of how many of the chicks survive at least until hunting season and could determine whether the department adopts the process.

"Before we step into or don't step into this, we need to see if it works, or how it works and what the cost per bird is," he says.

The study is looking at roosters specifically because hunters can only shoot roosters. Several of the southern Idaho incubators sit on department-managed wildlife management areas. Hunters are asked to place wings from birds they shoot in a collection barrel. The department counts the collected wings to measure hunting success.

Palazzolo says counting the number of incubator-raised roosters in the barrels will also give biologists an idea on the survival of hens.
"If X percent of roosters survive until hunting season, we should be able to extrapolate and say the same number of hens should have survived as well."

If the experiment shows a decent survival rate and a low cost-per-bird ratio, Palazzolo says the biologists will move on to a second phase in coming years - trying to determine if hens are able to survive the winter and reproduce the following spring. If that study produces promising results, he says it is possible the incubators could give wildlife biologists another tool. Good habitat is key, he says, because raising and releasing birds won't work if it doesn't exist.

"It does not matter what the other tools in the toolbox are. You have to have habitat on the ground for them. Whether they are chicks hatched and bred by wild hens or chicks raised in an (incubator) they have to have those basic needs - escape cover, places to get out of the weather, food - no matter what you are doing, you have to have the base amount of habitat and improve it."

Hagedorn says the incubators have caught the imagination of landowners and he could have several more sitting in good pheasant habitat. Some landowners, he says, are even willing to pay for their own. That could happen in the future, but for now he is busy monitoring the birds and making sure they have food and water.

"Hear them in there?" he asks as he approaches an incubator on land owned by Bear Schultz outside of Princeton. "There's their feed, there's their water. Isn't that something?"

In about three weeks, Hagedorn will open the door and the birds will, over the course of a few days, wander out and start learning to survive in the wild. Schultz, who has two young daughters, says he got involved with the project so his daughters might have the chance at good pheasant hunting some day.

"Hopefully, if this all works out these two little munchkins will have pheasants all over."

Join A Chapter  -  Start A New Chapter  -  Online Forum  -  Join A Committee 

Dale Denney (509) 684-6294      Dave Willson (425) 765-2038      Al Stover (360) 451-7784

"To protect Washington's hunting, fishing, and outdoor heritage; to foster local programs enhancing habitat, wildlife, and outdoor activities in Washington State; to hold regulating agencies accountable as the stewards of our wildlife; to ensure that science used in wildlife management is both valid and reliable; to work with other organizations in the furtherance of stated goals; and to fight legal and legislative efforts to take our rights and freedoms provided under the Washington State Constitution and the United States Constitution."