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TRAGOPAN

Newsletter of theWPA/BirdLife/Species Survival Commission

Pheasant Specialist Group

Issue 13/14 March 2001

ContentsFrom the Chairman p2Project Roundup p3Other News p5Research reports p8Sclaters Monal (Han Lianxian) p15Sclaters Monal (Rimlinger) p17

Cheer Pheasant (Kalsi) p20Palawan Peacock Pheasant (Lee) p26Reevess Pheasant (Zhengwang) p30Tibetan Eared Pheasant (Lu Xin) p33

Narayan Sarovar, India (Gokula) p34Pheasant management (Pandey) p37

EditorialThis is a bumper edition of Tragopan due tothe non-appearance of Tragopan 13. I hope itis worth the wait. The edition runs to some 40

pages which is great. There are certainly more

full-length papers/reports than have appearedin previous Tragopans . I still feel, however,that we are missing important news from some

quarters. If you have any project news, requestsfor information, grants information or anyother news, please get in touch. If anyone hasillustrations of pheasants they would like toinclude in Tragopan , please send them to me.Thanks to Dr Varadarajan Gokula for thelovely drawings and to Peter Garson for hisinvaluable technical assistance and proof-reading. The Dept of Agricultural andEnvironmental Science, University of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne reproduced anddistributed Tragopan. Tragopan is available atweb address: http://www.gct.org.uk/psg

Stuart Marsden . Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, ChesterStreet, Manchester M1 5GD, UK.tel: ++ 44 161 247 6215

fax: ++ 44 161 247 6318email: [email protected]

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Tragopan Number 13/14 2

From the ChairmanFirst I must apologise to all PSG members andsubscribers for the long wait since you receivedTragopan 12 in March 2000. My regular workload,together with the completion of the new edition ofthe Action Plan and preparations for the WPASymposium in Nepal conspired to occupy more thanall the available time in the summer. Thanks toStuart Marsden and all the authors contributing tothis double issue, which again provides abundantevidence of continuing hard work by many people inthe cause of pheasant conservation.

And so after a flurry of last minute editing in June-

July by Richard Fuller and me, the Action Plan for2000-04 was dispatched to the printers by IUCN,and 300 copies arrived in my office in December.We achieved one of our key objectives in agreeingthe texts for the threatened species accounts (and thethreat categories of all species) with the team atBirdLife International in Cambridge who were at thesame time completing Threatened Birds of theWorld (successor to Birds to Watch 2 ).

This was an important achievement, and not only because it illustrates close co-operation between thePSG as a taxon-orientated body and BirdLife as a

global geographical partnership. Both BirdLife andWPA now have a Memorandum of Understandingwith SSC. Together they make BirdLife the bodyresponsible for maintaining the Red List for all

birds, whilst anticipating that the five SpecialistGroups should operate with the help of WPA, and befully involved in any Red List revisions.Remembering that WPA employed Richard Fuller toedit three of the Galliformes Action Plans during1999-2000, the new edition for pheasants is proofthat these arrangements are already working.

Now all we have to do is plan and carry forward thenew set of 25 projects outlined in the Action Plan .Our members and others are currently running agood number of projects with some support fromWPA. With Philip McGowan joining them asConservation Director from 1 April 2001, I hopetheir capacity to support our efforts for pheasantconservation world wide will continue to grow. Inany case please keep sending in the project proposalforms for screening and endorsement: only then willwe be helping you to seek funds to carry out the

project!

The WPA Symposium in Nepal in September 2000marked a return to that country via five others in

Asia since the first WPA Pheasant Symposium therein 1979: a handful of people even made it to bothevents! The superb organisation owed a great deal toHem Sagar Baral (Bird Conservation Nepal),Meena Joshi (King Mahendra Trust for NatureConservation) and Nicola Chalmers-Watson (WPA).But no symposium is worthwhile withoutenthusiastic participants, and these we saw inabundance from many different Asian countries, inmany cases thanks to sponsorship from WPA. Ourestablished pattern of keeping formal talks to aminimum whilst allowing as much time as possiblefor discussions over posters seemed to work well

again. Thereby we achieved our customary level ofinformality, allowing everyone to have their say!

Finally, I want to thank two members of the PSGCore Committee who have stood down recently, fortheir great support. Mike Cook, who must rank asone of the most successful and expert pheasantaviculturalists in UK, represented the many privateindividuals involved in conservation breeding withgreat vigour right from June 1993 when the PSGcame into existence. In doing so, he made sure thatour deliberations had a proper balance. NicolaChalmers-Watson joined the Core Committee when

she was appointed as administrator for WPA in1997, but she has now sought employmentelsewhere. She was a great help in oiling the cogsthat connect WPA and the PSG, and indeed inconsiderably increasing the rate at which they nowturn to the advantage of all of us, and the pheasantswe aim to conserve!

We are extremely fortunate to have attracted JohnCorder to the committee in place of Mike Cook.John and his wife Pat organised the wonderful WPAInternational Symposium in Malaysia in 1997. Theykeep and keenly observe peacock-pheasants in

particular, and have a long association withMalaysia.

Peter Garson Department of Agricultural & Environmental Science, King George VI Building,University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE17RU, U.K. Tel: ++44 191 222 6674/6268Fax: ++44 191 222 5228

Email: [email protected]

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Project round-up

Pakistan Galliformes ProjectThe Pakistan Galliformes Project, directed by Rab

Nawaz (WWF-Pakistan, Abbottabad) involvedrepeated 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 collaborationwith WPA-Pakistan and the Wildlife Department of

NWFP. Fieldwork confirmed that there is a largeconcentration 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 InternationalSymposium on Galliformes (Nepal, September2000) that the area should be proposed toUNESCO as a World Heritage Site or Man andBiosphere Reserve.

Temmincks Tragopan, India

In India , thanks to support from WPA and StiftungAvifauna Protecta, Dipankar Ghose (Calcutta

University) has been able to return to West Siangand Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve in NWArunachal Pradesh and expects to complete hisstudy of population status, habitat distribution andhuman disturbance of Temmincks tragopanTragopan temminckii in June 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 whichhe is now employed. Until summer 2000 his workwas centred on Periyar Tiger Reserve, where hehad live-trapped and banded three females, foundand characterised both nests and roosting sites, andcollected 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 willenable him to extend his studies of space use andhabitat selection in Reeves's pheasant Syrmaticus

reevesii until 2003; his initial three year project onthis, funded by WPA, is scheduled to end in 2002(see also p. 30).

Tibetan eared-pheasants tagged

During the 2000 study season Lu Xin (WuhanUniv., Hebei) marked a total of 60 adults andsubadults of Crossoptilon harmani in Tibet,China . Based on the marked birds, including thosemarked in the previous year, many data on

behavioural ecology were collected. He alsosucceeded in locating 12 nests and marked 6

chicks. Interestingly he found that two females that paired with two different males laid their eggs inthe same nest so that the combined clutch sizereached 19 eggs. This project is funded by theChina National Natural Science Foundation andWPA (see also p. 33).

Sclater's Monal in Yunnan

Han Lianxian (Southwestern Forestry University,Kunming) has been awarded a research grant fromthe Yunnan Province Natural Science Foundation

to extend his work on the status and conservation ofSclater's monal Lophophorus sclateri in westernYunnan, China until 2002; his original project,funded by WPA, is scheduled to end this year (seealso p. 15).

Bulwers Pheasant, Borneo

John Rowden (Wildlife Conservation Society,USA) found no trace of Bulwers pheasant

Lophura bulweri during his return visit to KayanMentarang N.P. in NE Kalimantan, Indonesia

(Borneo) during December 1999-January 2000.The rains were late, changing fruiting patterns ofthe plants that may provide food for this pheasant,which has been suggested to be somewhat nomadic

before. He now is hoping to obtain permission toradio-tag some individuals in Sarawak, EastMalaysia (Borneo) in July 2001, so that he canthen track their movements over long periods. This

project was funded by the Species Survival Fund.

Westrag 2000

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Westrag 2000, a WPA-funded project started in1998, aims to bring western tragopan Tragopan

melanocephalus into captivity in Pakistan . OwenJoiner from UK oversaw the construction of a suiteof large aviaries above Shinkiari, near Mansehra in

NWFP during 1999, and made several attempts tolive-trap birds in 2000. During early 2000, TanveerMalik of the NWFP Wildlife Department receivedavicultural training in UK. All trapping attemptswere unsuccessful, despite changing tactics andmaking field visits at different seasons. The aviaryfacilities have been handed over to the WildlifeDepartment and the project will restart if and whentragopans are obtained by their staff.

Western Tragopan research

Shahid Bashir (Aligarh Muslim University) is now

undertaking his third and final season of detailedwork on annual changes in habitat use and thecalling behaviour of western tragopan Tragopan

melanocephalus in the Specka forests of Chamba,Himachal Pradesh, India . During his fieldwork in2000, he encountered 69 birds whilst walking trailsand heard dawn calls in spring from a minimum of41 males spread across eight locations within thestudy area. This project is funded by WPA.

Western Tragopan by Dr Varadarajan Gokula

Other news

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and others are hoping to obtain samples from theseand SE Asian mainland populations in order tosequence DNA and produce a molecular

phylogeny, thereby also reconstructing thehistorical spread of these populations outside thenative range for the species. Meanwhile LehrBrisbin (University of Georgia, USA) has crossedhis putative pure males, originating from northernIndia in the 1960s, with domestic fowl females andis finding a small comb to be retained in the hybridfemales even after two back-crosses with his males.Thus presence of combs in females in the wildmight well indicate past introgression.

Aviculture workshop

Gary Robbins and John Corder (WPA, UK) arescheduled to run a workshop in early April 2001 onavicultural techniques, in collaboration with theCentral Zoo Authority of India . It is hoped that 12-16 zoo and wildlife staff from the ForestDepartments of the northern states will attend.

Pipar project news

For over 20 years WPA has supported a project atPipar, north of Pokhara in Nepal . This has involvedthe provision of a local guard to protect theremarkably pristine forest reserve from poachers, aswell as the support of several local schools,

particularly in environmental education. Repeatedsurveys of satyr tragopan Tragopan satyra andkoklass Pucrasia macrolopha populations in thereserve indicate stable populations. An opportunitywas taken to review progress and plan for the futureof this project, during a special workshop at theWPA International Symposium on Galliformes inSeptember 2000. Hem Baral (Bird Conservation

Nepal) is currently working on a comprehensiveconservation plan for Pipar, and a survey ofwildlife populations and habitats in the Santal areaadjacent to the existing reserve is planned for May2001.

Chinese scientist visits UK

Ding Chang-qing (Institute of Zoology, Beijing)was able to spend two months training in DNAanalysis techniques with Koon Wah Fok(Nottingham University, UK) at the end of 2000,thanks to the provision of his airfare by BritishAirways Assisting Conservation through WPA.

Koon Wah Foks Ph.D. project is concerned withresolving the phylogeny of the eared-pheasantsCrossoptilon using several sources of DNAsequence data, as well as developing the capabilityto determine parentage (and therefore the matingsystem) 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 privilegedaccess to samples from green peafowl Pavo

muticus skins originating in peninsular Malaysia and held in the Raffles Museum collection inSingapore. These date from before 1920 andrepresent the long-extinct Malay Peninsula

population of this species. Eight skins were alsofound at Tring where staff also kindly allowedsamples to be taken for analysis. These have beensent to Ettore Randi for DNA analysis, so that thedegree of genetic difference between the extinctMalaysian race and surviving populations includingthat on Java in Indonesia and others, can beestablished. A population of captive-bred green

peafowl has become feral in the vicinity of MelakaZoo in Malaysia, suggesting that a re-introduction

project conducted in accordance with the IUCNGuidelines has some prospect of succeeding. Oneimportant early step in this process is to establishwhich 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 makethis decision.

Pheasants in Cambodia

Staff from Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodiaand the Fauna and Flora International (FFI)

Indochina Programme carried out a wildlife surveyin NE Mondulkiri Province during April 2000.They found evidence of green peafowl Pavo

muticus being hunted but local informationsuggested 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 animportant concentration of this species in 1998.

Now an international conservation effort is beingadvocated to conserve the habitats and manythreatened species of this whole region.

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

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management action to be taken on all the populations overseen by this TAG, including thoseof many pheasant species. All species currentlyheld were assigned a score using a system adopted

by EAZA which stresses in

situ conservation status and zoo involvement infield conservation action. However the action

proposed reflects several other factors: ex situ

status in Europe and world wide, PSGrecommendations in the 1995 Action Plan, thesupposed 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 inEurope as a result of this exercise.

Species ISIS survey(31.12.99)

EAZAGalliTAG

survey(1998)

Totalex situestimate

Red List category(2000)

Proposed EAZAGalliTAG

actionBlyths tragopanTragopan blythii

8.5.26 places

9.5.06 places

ca . 50 Vulnerable EuropeanStudbook

Cabots tragopanTragopan caboti

19.15.311 places

5.5.04 places


Edwardss pheasant Lophura edwardsi

104.72.1236 places

78.76.839 places

ca . 1,000 Endangered EEP Studbook

Vietnamese pheasant L. hatinhensis

24.19.429 places

2.2.02 places

50-100 Endangered EEP Studbook

Crestless fireback L. erythrophthalma

9.15.010 places

4.4.03 places

c. 200 L.e.e .c. 50

L.e.p

Vulnerable EuropeanStudbook

Mountain peacock- pheasantPolyplectroninopinatum

21.22.99 places

11.12.07 places


Malaysian peacock- pheasantP. malacense

12.15.010 places

3.6.02 places


Great argus Argusianus argus

49.48.941 places

25.30.618 places

ca .500 NearThreatened

EuropeanStudbook

Congo peafowl Afropavo congensis

49.57.1020 places

44.33.510 places

ca . 150 Vulnerable EEP Studbook

Alain Hennache , Director, Parc Zoologique deCleres, 76690 Cleres, France( [email protected] )

Gary Robbins , Stone House, Old Market Street, Mendlesham, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5SA, U.K.([email protected] )

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
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

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cause for concern, along with habitat destruction.Predation also occurs as the bird is thought to beone of main foods for large raptors such as GoldenEagle and Hodgson's Hawk-eagle. There is littlerecent information about its breeding biology andhabitat use. My studies of habitat use over threeyears show the species to prefer broad-leaved ormixed forests, but it is also observed in coniferous

plantations. The density of undergrowth vegetationappears to be an important factor in habitatselection.

The number of active hunters and thenumbers of birds hunted have both decreasedmarkedly since the 1970s. Additionally, localgovernment and the Hunting Association in Japanhave recommended the release of captive-bred

pheasants to the wild. More than 6,000 CopperPheasants have been released every year on Japansmain islands. I examined the effect of release of

pheasants to the wild by radio-tracking. Althoughmy sample size was small, most of birds withtransmitters were killed by predators within amonth after release. As a result, I suggest that theidea that hunted individuals are being compensatedfor 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 inthe wild. Unfortunately I have not succeeded yet soif someone has experience of capturing pheasantseasily 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:[email protected]

Captive breeding helps Science

Analyses of plumage variation in museum skins ofthe imperial pheasant conducted by PamelaRasmussen at AMHN (Washington D.C.) suggestedthat the imperialis phenotype might derive from

natural hybridisation of Edwardss pheasant xSilver pheasant in central Vietnam (Rasmussen,1998). Hybridisation experiments conducted inClres of Edwardss Pheasant x Berliozs Silver

pheasants strongly support this view. Three male phenotypes were obtained, of which one was likethe imperial pheasant as described by Delacour, asecond was very similar but with two white spottedcentral tail feathers, and a third looked like the birdcaught in Da Krong district (Quang Tri province)on 27th February 2000. The first mtDNAsequences also support this hypothesis. Theseresults will be further detailed when microsatelliteanalyses are completed.

White tail feathers have been noted in three captiveEdwards pheasants (France, USA, Germany) likelydue to inbreeding, so that they look like VietnamesePheasants. An analysis of plumage variations in theVietnamese pheasant shows that the number ofwhite tail feathers is very variable, as is also the agewhen they develop. This number can also bedifferent on either side of the tail. Furthermore theyare not always fully white but sometimes brownishspotted or patched, and one male trapped in ThuaThien Hu Province, in June 1999, also had whitethird wing coverts. These white feathers suggest an

inbred origin for the Vietnamese Pheasant that mayhave just originated from isolated and strongly

bottlenecked Edwards populations living in a veryfragmented habitat. Such inbreeding plumage

features have already been noted in closely relatedspecies like the Swinhoes pheasants in Australia(Weber, 1992). The range of the Edwards pheasanthas been defined by Delacour, who said that itoccurred from Donghoi to Hoi An, but he neverexplored the Ha Tinh-Ke Go region (Hennache &Dickinson, 2000) so that the Edwards pheasantmight also have occurred in Ha Tinh Province atthe beginning of this century. Moreover, the mostrecent bird discoveries also suggest that the rangesof these two taxa overlap and both could live insecondary forest. This hypothesis needs to beconfirmed by laboratory DNA data from knownlocalities.

ReferencesHennache, A. & Dickinson, E. (2000). Les types

doiseaux rapports du Vietnam, du Laos et duCambodge par Jean Delacour entre 1923 et 1939.

Zoosystema 22 (3) : 601-629Rasmussen, P. (1998). Is the imperial pheasant Lophura imperialis a hybrid? Work in progressand a call for information. Tragopan 9: 8-10.

Weber, R. (1992). The Swinhoe pheasant. WPA News 37 : 29-30.

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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 itsfirst international symposium on pheasantconservation in Kathmandu in November 1979. InSeptember 2000 they gathered there again after along tour through Asia for other events in thisseries: 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 WildlifeConservation, the King Mahendra Trust for NatureConservation and Bird Conservation Nepal, incollaboration with WPA and the Specialist Groupsfor Pheasants and for Partridges, Quails andFrancolins.

The programme followed a well-tried formuladesigned to maximise interaction between all

participants and to use the international gatheringfor the benefit of the host country. The first day wasgiven over entirely to presentations and postersessions on Nepal, and two workshops followed.One was concerned with planning the futureconservation of the Pipar Pheasant Reserve withinthe Annapurna Conservation Area. KoklassPheasant and Satyr Tragopan populations have

been monitored in this remarkably pristine locationsince 1978, whilst WPA has employed a guard andgiven substantial assistance to three nearby villageschools. Hem Sagar Baral (Bird Conservation

Nepal) is now preparing a conservation plan for thearea as a guide to future action.

The second workshop constituted a detailed reviewof current knowledge of the threatened SwampFrancolin across its range in the terai swamps andgrasslands on the southern fringe of the Himalaya.Recent surveys have clarified where it still occursin some numbers, but its absence from some

protected areas in its range, and its abundance in atleast one are hard to explain. The workshopconcluded that more work was needed on its habitatuse patterns, and on the impacts of current

management, including winter grass harvesting and burning in some places.

The remainder of the symposium programme tookthe form of a review of progress on Action Plan

projects, and a look ahead to the implementation ofthe new editions for 2000-04 that have just been

published by IUCN. Some 20 participants fromChina, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh,India and Pakistan were part sponsored by WPA toattend. A full symposium proceedings will be

published in Nepal in mid-2001, thanks to fullsupport from the King Mahendra Trust.

WPA International GalliformesSymposium Scientists Workshop

The scientists workshop was held from 1 st to 6 th

October at the Nepal Conservation and ResearchTraining Centre, Sauraha, Royal Chitwan NationalPark . Mr Narayan Pd. Dhakal, Director NCRTC,Sauraha introduced the centre and the work that itcarries out. This includes both training governmentofficers and others, as well as carrying out researchin the park. This is most notably monitoringnumbers of the large mammal species: tigers andrhinos.

John Carroll introduced the main workshop themeof population analysis and emphasised that theworkshop would be informal: there would be

birdwatching walks each day from 6.30 am. Thenthere were formal sessions - a combination of talkson participants own work and proposal based oncases in the new Action Plans. These presentationswere developed in Nepali-foreigner pairs or tr iosand were presented later in the workshop. Topicscovered included how to count populations of

pheasants and partridges in the wild by dealing withissues of sampling, practical constraints and theobjectives being set. In addition, report andmanuscript writing and research proposaldevelopment was covered.

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Philip McGowan , Director of Conservation, WPA([email protected])John Carroll , Chair, Partridge, Quail &Francolin SG ([email protected])

Peter Garson , Chair, Pheasant SG( [email protected]) .

Ruffed pheasants in captivity: a major problem

Although the two species of ruffed pheasantsChrysolophus are commonly held, there are serious

problems concerning the animals kept in protectedenvironments. An aviary bird for such a long time,the Golden pheasant, Chrysolophus pictus (L.), hassuccumbed to all the effects of domestication. Alsothe relative proportion of mutated genes has

become far too important in the ex-situ populations,with an important impact on the features of bredanimals. There has also been occasionalhybridisation with Lady Amherst pheasantChrysolophus amherstiae . As a result todaysanimals in European collections are hardlycomparable with their wild ancestors.The limitedimports 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 ofartificial selection later on, important mistakes have been made. Features that not at all occur in naturewere favoured, while natural characters havedisappeared.

About three years ago some ruffed pheasantenthusiasts decided to take some action. Anextensive morphologic investigation of animalscaught in the wild was carried out by screening allthe skins in the collection of the Natural HistoryMuseum at Tring (UK). The results of these studieswere published in a series of papers in the Dutchedition of Aviornis International. They provided uswith detailed descriptions of both male and femaleof the two species and permit us to unmask most ofthe hybrids between these species at once on asimple morphologic base. Examination of a largenumber of animals in private collections confirmedthat very few pure animals are left in captivity.Fortunately, we were able to obtain someindividuals of the golden pheasant, offspring fromanimals imported from the Beijing Breeding Centreand from the San Diego Zoo. In the meantime weare keeping within the Ruffed Pheasant Group a

population of about 60 birds with goodmorphologic 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, feathersamples were sent to the Instituto Nazionale per laFauna Selvatica (INFS) at Bologna (Italy) whereDr. Ettore Randi analysed them. 38 samples of C.

pictus and C. amherstiae were collected. Allsamples were analysed, and all except one showedmt-DNA very similar to putative pure C. pictus .Therefore, these results suggest that almost all theC. amherstiae in European stocks are hybrids.However, the C. pictus samples have given rathervariable sequences, and there is only one apparently

pure C. amherstiae for comparison so it is obvious

that more samples must be taken, especially fromreliable reference birds. Perhaps samples frommuseum skins would be helpful, although thismaterial is not so easy to work with. Anothersolution would be to obtain samples from animalscaught in the wild.

There is also the problem of unmasking hybridsfrom C. pictus with only paternal introgression ofC. amherstiae . As the mt-DNA is maternallyinherited, it can detect only maternal hybridisation.Dr. Randi is currently checking ca. 50 differentmicro-satellite loci, which were originally isolatedin the domestic fowl. These micro-satellites will beused to obtain information on eventual paternalhybridisation.

Any information about reliable Chrysolophus,especially amherstiae is welcome!

Ludo Pinceel . Rivendell, Grootrees 66, B-2460Katerlee, Belgium. e-mail:

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

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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 foraccompanying me once again, and U Khin MaungZaw (Director, Nature & Wildlife Division,Yangon) for making the many arrangementsnecessary for our fieldwork. I am also extremely

grateful for funding support from Mr JamesGoodhart via WPA in UK, and from the StiftungAvifauna Protecta and the Zoological Society forthe Conservation of Species and Populations, bothin 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 therelationship between kinship and social behaviourin the blood pheasant. This three year project willmainly focus on the following specific areas:

1. Space use and social behaviour in the breeding season . This will involve the estimation of geneticrelatedness among neighbouring individuals in thewild, including paired males, females and unpairedyearling males. The object is to find out how

closely-related and unrelated birds arrangethemselves in space, and to see how aggressive,cooperative and sexual behaviour betweenindividuals are affected by the degree geneticrelatedness of the individuals involved.

2. Social structure and social behaviour in winter flocks . By determining the relatedness ofindividuals within two or three neighbouring winterflocks, it will be possible to determine how theseflocks form at the end of the breeding season. Anattempt will also be made to interpret dominancerelations within flocks in terms of kinship, centring

on the idea that close relatives should be morecooperative 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 bloodand/or feathers in the spring of 2000, and expect toget many more in the current winter and throughthis and next year. Ettore Randi (INFS, Bologna,Italy) has kindly agreed to collaborate with me inthis work. In order to estimate relatedness fromDNA samples, a good number of variablemicrosatellite loci need to be identified in blood

pheasant nuclear DNA samples. The INFS lab is inthe midst of an extensive screening exercise withmany microsats from chicken and samples from anumber of different pheasant species. Many of thechicken microsats amplify in other pheasantspecies, but most of the loci identified are notvariable enough to allow relatedness analyses. Upto now no blood pheasant samples have beenchecked, so completing the screening will stillrequire some months, particularly if it provesdifficult to pick up variable microsats. But thenhopefully we can get started with the kinshipanalysis of individuals in my study population.

Jia Chenxi , Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academyof Sciences, 19 Zhongguancun Lu, Haidian,

Beijing 100080, P.R.China. email: [email protected]

by Dr Varadarajan Gokula

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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 above1180m 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 Apriland May of 2000. We recorded five sites whereoften can heard calls of the pheasant at about 6square kilometers We feel this way may be notexact, because the birds move in large range.

5.Study habitatsMain field work carried in Datang of TengchongCounty, somefield work carried in Cizhong of Deqin. Werecorded 5 types habitats used by the pheasant andobtained inhabtating altitude with diffirent season.According to the observing of winter and springwork, Sclater's Monal occupied broad leaveevergreen forest (Below 2800) in winter. Withsnow line withdraw up, the birds occupy azalea and

bamboo bushes mixed forest (2800~3100), dragonspruce, 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 thereare more villages under 3400m. Human activitiesdisturb siriously.

6.DietDuring field work we have recorded 9 kinds offood plants to be eaten by the birds and collected34 samples of dropping. We are trying check outwhat plantsare in the droppings now.

7.Studying activities of Sclater's Monal in

captivity .For get data and help our field work and letmembers who join this project get more training,

we started a study on the pheasant in captivity sinceMarch 2000. This work carried at Forestry Centerof Yunnan, where is near Kunming, and watchingon a pair of the birds. The work will be finishednext summer.

Planned Activities and problems for nextreporting period

1.To carry distribution survey continuously andfocus on Nushan Ranges.

2.Improve ecology study method. We used binoculars watching the pheasant in alpinemountain and find it to be powerful, We plan to

buy a telescope for long range watching bird inhigh mountain3.Due to Datang has hard traffic condition, we planset a new researching site in Nanzaigongfan, wherehas a relatively good traffic condition. We plan todo some work in coming fall and check

Nanzaigongfan if suitable for the project.4.Due to postgraduate student, Zhou Yongwu needto study basic courses during spring 2000, fieldwork were stopped sometimes This situation will bechanged after Zhou finished his basic courses thissummer. We will organize a study group can becontinued carry field work next spring.

Han Lianxian . Wildlife Research and Teaching Division, Resource College, Southwest ForestryUniversity, Bailong Temple, Kunming, Yunnan

650224 P. R. China. tel: ++86871 3862628 e-mail: [email protected]

Surveys for Sclaters Monal in northwestern Yunnan

Introduction

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We conducted surveys for Sclaters Monal Lophophura sclateri at three sites along Chinasmountainous southwestern border with Myanmar(Burma), near the eastern range limit of SclatersMonal. Much of the survey area had only recently

been opened to foreign travellers. Potential monalhabitats were widespread throughout the area, butthe species had been confirmed at only a handful oflocations, primarily because access has been verylimited.

Objectives

Our objectives were three-fold: 1) to assessvariation in Sclaters Monal habitats along a north-

south gradient through western Yunnan, 2) tocompare densities of monal under different habitatconditions, and 3) to identify a potential locationfor in-depth ecological studies of the species. Wewere joined by staff members of the MammalogySection of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, ourhost institution in China. Our work was supported

by the Zoological Society of San Diego and theKunming Institute of Zoology.

Results

We began fieldwork in early May, 1999, at DaYang Tian, Tengchong County, near the southernlimit of the monals known distribution. Da YangTian is a mosaic of meadows and bamboo thicketsat about 3,900 meters elevation. It is probably themost extensive patch of alpine habitat in thesouthern Gaoligong Range. We surveyed Da YangTians meadows for 9 days, working from a seriesof bivouacs along the crest of the main ridge. Inessence we conducted a line transect survey in slowmotion. Every second day or so we relocated ourcamp 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 hourseach morning and afternoon watching and listeningfor monal from these blinds.

We observed between three and five adult malemonal in the Da Yang Tian area. We werentcertain of the exact number, however, because wewere unable to distinguish between individualmales on successive days. We surmise from severalhours of behavioural observation that territorialityamong male monal had waned by early May.Individual males often flew cross-slope several

hundred yards to alight where we had seen or heardother males. Vocalizations by newly arrived malesdid not elicit a vocal response, however, from themales already present. On the third day offieldwork an unseasonably early monsoon stormstruck. We held out through five days of persistentrain and fog but found it impossible to observeadditional monal.

On May 23rd we arrived at Ci Kai, GongshanCounty, the market town nearest our northernmostsurvey site, Dong Shao Fang. Chinese scientists hadcollected monal at Dong Shao Fang in years past,and a well-established trail provided relatively easyaccess to alpine elevations. Our departure into thefield was delayed, however, by continued heavy

rains, which raised the Pula River above localfootpaths. Once we arrived at Dong Shao Fang, rainand fog persisted for 5 more days, largelyrestricting us to our tents and kitchen lean-to. It was

becoming clear that a springtime study of SclatersMonal was going to require special monsoon-worthy equipment, as well as an innovativeapproach to collecting data. On May 30th theweather subsided enough for us to check a nearby4,000 metre pass for signs of monal. Two membersof our party reported hearing the call of a malemonal, but the rain intensified and we were forcedto return to camp before others could confirm its

presence. At this site too, inclement weatheressentially confined us to our tents most of the dayswe had allocated for a survey.

In early June we arrived at our final survey site, onthe slopes above a dilapidated lumber town namedZhiziluo, central Fugong County. Chinese scientistshad collected many Sclaters Monal here over theyears. It was our central survey site, approximatelymidway between Da Yang Tian and Dong ShaoFang. We endured more foul weather on the localsummit for a full three days. On the fourth day wedescended to the upper tree limit, where we hadobserved what we believed were monal fecaldroppings. On the way, we virtually stumbled into afemale monal with three two-week-old chicks. Overthe next day and a half we scoured nearby slopesfor more signs of monal. At 4,100 metres elevationon a prominent spur we noticed what looked like anunusual kind of soil erosion or patterned ground.On closer inspection we saw that the soils mossycrust had been turned over in 1 to 2 inch squares.Fresh monal droppings and deeply-excavated pitsconfirmed that we had found a site where a largenumber of monal had recently fed. The diggings

extended for several hundredmeters up the spur. We were

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delighted to find examples of a fungus-infectedcaterpillar within the pits dug by monal. This dongchong xia cao is a popular and expensivetraditional Chinese medication that DavidRimlinger has previously determined to be a likelyfood item of the rare Chinese Monal in Sichuan.Other table scraps left behind by the monalincluded stems and roots of cinquefoil (Rosaceae),

buttercup (Ranunculaceae), jack-in-the-pulpit(Araceae), and fritillary (Liliaceae). Other evidencesuggested the monal had also eaten grass shoots, asmall bulb-forming member of the carrot family,

beetle larvae, and the larvae of wood-boringinsects. The proximity of the diggings to densethickets, both here and at Da Yang Tian, suggestedSclaters Monal often forage within a few metres of

bamboo or broadleaf thickets. The presumed flockof monal remained quiet and out of sightthroughout our stay. We suspect their vocal seasonhad passed by the time we arrived at Zhiziluo inearly June.

We decided the Zhiziluo site was the best of thethree sites for an in-depth monal study. It offered adiverse mosaic of habitat types, a branching ridgesystem that would facilitate radio-telemetry, expertand congenial guides, and an apparent abundanceof monal. Da Yang Tian was appealing for itsrelative ease of access, abundance of interesting

wildlife including lesser panda, takin, tufted deer, black bear and blood pheasants. Local authoritieswere hospitable, and the local field help was prettygood under the circumstances. But the extent ofmonal habitat and the numbers of monal at DaYang Tian appeared to be quite limited. Dong ShaoFang, our northernmost site, had such good accessthat it was probably too disturbed by humans. The

phenomenal rainfall at Dong Shao Fang would be aformidable obstacle to overcome, and the local helpwe encountered considered monal research littlemore 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 occurseven further south than currently recognized. HanLianxian of Yunnans Southwest Forestry Collegeis currently checking several potential rangeextensions. The species occurrence ondiscontinuous mountain summits, however, suggestit could be vulnerable to local extinction. This is

particularly true in the south, where alpine habitats

occur as isolated islands and local populations mayconsist of as few as a dozen individuals.

Our surveys produced three to five adult males atDa Yang Tian, one vocalizing individual at DongShao Fang, and one female with three chicks atZhiziluo. Unfortunately, bad weather and ourfailure to fully implement the intended study designleave us with no means to compare the abundanceof monal at the three sites we visited. The birds weencountered all occupied large meadows ormeadow complexes that extended several hundredmetres down steep slopes. These meadows weresurrounded by bamboo or rhododendron thickets,with at least a few rock outcrops present. Thelowest elevation at which we observed suchmeadows, as well as monal, was about 3,000metres. 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. Certainhabitat features increased or decreased along thenorth-south axis of the monals Yunnandistribution. Alpine habitats tend to be morecontiguous and more rocky at more northerlylocations because mountain ranges of the regionachieve greater elevations further north. Rainfall isalso higher further north. Alpine thickets at morenortherly locations contained a greater proportionof broadleaf shrubs and less bamboo.

While travelling between our three survey sites weencountered two dead monal for sale in outdoormarkets. Even though the species receives the same

protected status as giant pandas, carryinga potential death sentence, monal were being soldopenly for about $12. It appears that illegal markethunting still poses a significant threat to SclatersMonal. Herb collection for traditional Chinesemedicine may also be detrimental to monal, but not

because herb collectors compete with monal for theroots and tubers of such plants as "ta huang" (wildrhubarb) or "bei mu" (fritillary). Herb collectors areoften the only humans that visit the heightsoccupied by Sclaters Monal. They camp forseveral days while collecting herbs, and many settrap-lines or hunt with guns to add meat to theirmeals. Chinas burgeoning rural economy isenticing increasing numbers of entrepreneurs intothe mountains to harvest such alternative forest

products as medicinal herbs. The apparentconnection between these cottage industries and theillegal harvest of large animals like Sclaters Monaldeserves serious consideration by Chinas wildlifeconservation authorities.

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For an illustrated report on these surveys visit JimBlands 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 conservationstatus of galliformes in the GaoligongshanRegion. Annual Review of the World Pheasant

Association 94/95:23-24.

David Rimlinger . Curator of Birds, ZoologicalSociety 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 Instituteof Zoology, Kunming, Yunnan, China650223.

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

Introduction

The Cheer Pheasant Catreus wallichi is distributedin India, Pakistan and Nepal. In India has beenfound at numerous sites in Himachal Pradesh andUttar Pradesh. It inhabits steep hillsides with scruband grass and dissected with wooded ravines at1200-3500 m and has a strong affinity for earlysuccessional habitats maintained by frequent humanintervention. Cheer Pheasant populations have beenseverely reduced due to habitat degradation, over-hunting and conversion of land for agriculture. Due

to its specialised habitat requirements, thedistribution of cheer is very patchy. Most known

populations are very small (

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Methods

Information on the cheer locations in the selectedstudy areas was collected from published literature,and through interviews with local villagers andshepherds. Dawn and dusk calls and the call

playback method were used to estimate the numberof sites where cheer called (henceforth calledcalling sites).

For dawn call counts, the transects were manned 30minutes before until 60 minutes after sunrise andeach observer noted the number of calling sites and

their positions. Times of calls and compass bearings of calling sites were also used to collatethe data and estimate a minimum number of callingsites per transect. The call playback method wasused only when no cheer calls were heard duringdawn and dusk watches at a particular site. I usedonly two call broadcasts of short duration (20seconds each) to avoid the risk of disturbance tocalling birds. In case of a response after a call was

broadcast, the number of calling sites was noted.For estimating density indices, each calling sitedetected was treated as an individual data point.Data only from dawn call counts was used as birdsappear generally less likely to call at dusk. The areasampled at each site was estimated from the lengthof the transect and an effective strip width of 200m.

Habitat sampling plots were randomly located in patches of structurally different vegetation both atthe calling sites and the vacant sites. Sites where nocheer calls were heard even after call playbackwere classed as vacant sites. The selected stratawere grassland, grassland interspersed with sometrees, mixed forest, conifer forest and agricultural

land. Naturally occurring trails in selected strata incheer and vacant sites were used as transects andsampling plots were located by generating randomnumbers.

At locations generated by random numbers incalling and vacant sites, 0.05 ha (radius=12.6 m)circular plots were marked. The following datawere collected - diameter of trees and saplings at

breast height. All trees within the circular plot werecounted by species. Canopy cover (%) wasestimated by taking 20 + or readings through asighting tube (diameter = 5 cm) for the presence or

absence of green leaves.

Within each circular plot, one 4 4 m quadrat was positioned randomly for sampling shrubs. Shrubcover (%) was estimated at three heights; 0.5 m, 1.0m and 1.5 m, by counting the number of coveredsquares (each square = 5 x 5 cm) of a 30 50 cmchequer board at a distance of 5 m. Data on groundcover were collected in two randomly located 1 1m quadrats marked within the circular plot, andmean values were calculated. Ground cover (%)was estimated along a diagonal through each 1 1 mquadrat by taking 20 + or readings through asighting tube (diameter = 3 cm) held at waist heightfor the presence or absence of ground cover,

respectively. Ground cover height was measured atfour corners of each 1 1 m quadrat with a scale. Ateach site, altitude, aspect, slope, number of villageswithin 1-2 km, and presence of a water body,cliff/ravine and cultivation within 300 m, were allnoted. Land use practices with respect to cuttingand burning within one year and grazing wererecorded.

Results

Index of Cheer Pheasant density

A total of 15 calling sites were detected at MajathalWildlife Sanctuary (Table 1) and the density indexequated to 17 sites per km 2 in suitable habitat. InChail Wildlife Sanctuary, call counts on theKharion and Blossom beats produced 24 callingsites at a density index of 5 sites per km 2. Densityindex at Kaksthal and surrounding areas was 3 sites

per km 2. Bhaatal and Sara Reserve Forest produced5 and 4 sites per km 2, respectively. Density indicesfrom two sites in Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary andthree sites in Thathana Reserve Forest were 4 and 5sites per km 2, respectively.

Garson (1983) reported 24 pairs per km 2 in April1983 in Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary. There were40 pairs of cheer reported in April 1979, with adensity 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 marginallyin 1987 (Garson et al . 1992). Sharma & Pandey(1989) sighted two birds and heard some calls fromslope above the Sheep Breeding Farm at Kaksthalin March 1988. Gaston (1981) reported two calling

birds in Sara Reserve Forest.Jandrotia et al . (1996) heard

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4-6 cheer in January 1994 at Bhaatal, and sightedeight cheer in Sara Reserve Forest in February1995. Jandrotia et al . (1996) sighted seven and

heard 10-14 birds in Thathana Reserve Forest inMarch 1995.

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

Name of area Number ofvegetation plots

Number of callingsites

Area surveyed(Km2)

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 thenearest human habitation and within 300 m of acliff or ravine (Table 2). Water was availablewithin 300 m only at Bhaatal, Tundah WildlifeSanctuary and Thathana Reserve Forest. Both thesites at Tundah Wildlife Sanctuary were nearcultivated land. Table 3 shows that there weredifferences in certain vegetation characteristics

between habitat plots at calling and vacant sites. Number of trees, saplings and shrubs was lower atcalling sites than at vacant sites. All calling siteshad some shrub cover whereas some vacant siteslacked it completely. Height of shrub cover atcalling sites showed a greater diversity than atvacant sites. There were a significantly higher

percentage of shrubs (height 0.51.0 m) at cheersites. All calling sites had a significantly greaterground cover than vacant sites.

The calling sites had 0-30 % forest cover andvacant sites had 10-50 % forest cover, and the

difference was significant (p

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variables were measured in some of these plotsselected randomly. Sites where no cheer calls wereheard even after call playback were selected asvacant sites. I selected vacant sites within the samestudy areas where calling sites were located. Thiswas done to eliminate the effect of hunting on thedata since hunting may remove individuals of a

population from an area suitable for cheer pheasant.Whereas within an area of suitable habitat, it ishighly unlikely that cheer are hunted out from onesite and not from others. In this study, cheerinhabitated mainly open areas with few trees andsaplings, dense cover of tall grass and moderateshrub cover up to 1 m tall. Local land use practices

of seasonal grass cutting and burning and cattlegrazing have probably maintained the cheer habitat.However, with an ever-increasing human pressure,these previously seasonal activities are now, tosome extent, being carried out throughout the year.Habitat degradation has assumed such proportionsthat many areas were bare and eroded with

practically no regeneration at all. Reducing human pressure, modifying traditional methods of land useand enforcing stringent penalties on poaching will

probably help to prevent the march of this speciestowards extinction.

Table 3. Differences in vegetation characteristics of habitat plots at calling sites and vacant sitesin seven study areas. Calling Sites Vacant Sites

Habitat Variable Mean S.D. Range Mean S.D. Range t Sig.

Tree density (no/m 2) 0.008 0.001 0 - 0.02 0.014 0.003 0 - 0.04 0.798 N.S.Tree basal area (m 2/0.05ha)

12.71 1.767 0 - 30.19 17.49 7.831 0 - 21.7 1.057 N.S.

Canopy cover (%) 20.72 1.457 0 32 50.37 8.056 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) 0.004 0.001 0 - 0.02 0.024 0.010 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 76.78 5.088 1 100 63.32 8.769 0 100 2.225 *

Shrub cover (%) at 1.0 m 51.66 5.380 0 100 41.33 8.100 0 100 2.141 *

Shrub cover (%) at 1.5 m 13.37 2.242 0 - 35.66 45.63 11.274 0 100 0.500 N.S.

Shrub cover height (cm) 90.22 8.749 28.6 - 175 109.20 21.954 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 (%) 86.85 1.897 70 - 100 71.01 5.101 17.5 - 97.5 2.057 *

Ground cover height(cm) 31.25 6.556 2.38 - 87.3 35.62 9.806 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, HimachalPradesh for permission to study cheer in the wild.Thanks are due to the Oriental Bird Club andWorld Pheasant Association-South Asia RegionalOffice for providing financial support. I am gratefulto Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Principal, M.L.N. College,

Yamuna Nagar, Haryana for encouragement and permission for leave from the college. Dr. RahulKaul, Mr. Sanjeeva Pandey, I.F.S., Dr. VirinderSharma and Mr. Jitinder S. Jandrotia gave adviceand information on cheer sites. Dr. Vinod Pandyaand Dr. Harsh Mohan helped with fieldwork. Ithank all these persons for extending generous

support.

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References

Garson, P. J. (1983). The Cheer Pheasant Catreuswallichii in Himachal Pradesh WesternHimalayas: An update. J. World Pheasant Ass. 8: 29-39.

Garson, P. J., Young, L. & Kaul, R. (1992)Ecology and conservation of the Cheer PheasantCatreus wallichii : Studies in the wild and the

progress of a reintroduction project. BiologicalConservation 59: 25-35.

Gaston, A. J. (1987) Maps of recent pheasantobservations in Himalayas. Pp. 65-77 in C. D.W. Savage and M. W. Ridley, eds. Pheasants in

Asia 1982 . New Delhi, India: RekhaPrinters/World Pheasant Association.

Gaston, A. J. & Singh, J. (1980) The Status of thecheer pheasant Catreus wallichii in the ChailWildlife Sanctuary Himachal Pradesh. J. WorldPheasant Ass. 5: 68-73.

Gaston, A. J. Garson, P. J. & Hunter, M. L. (1981)Present distribution and status of pheasants inHimachal Pradesh Western Himalaya. J. WorldPheasant Ass . 27: 291-314.

Jandrotia, J. S., Sharma, V. & Katoch, S. S. (1996)A pheasant survey in the Ravi catchment ofChamba 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 conservationaction plan 1995-1999 . Gland, Switzerland:I.U.C.N.

Sharma, V. & Pandey S. (1989) Pheasant surveysin 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: [email protected]

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

Introduction

The Palawan Peacock Pheasant Polyplectronemphanum is a Vulnerable (Collar et al 1994)species endemic to the Philippines island ofPalawan. Its traditionally documented habitat of the

primary forests of the coastal plains (King 1981) israpidly disappearing (e.g. Quinnell & Balmford1988). Consequently, P. emphanum is becomingincreasingly restricted to higher altitudes(McGowan et al . 1989). P. emphanum is threatened

by continuing and accelerating forest alteration, andhunting, egg collecting (subsistence) and trappingfor the pet trade (McGowan & Garson 1995), withthe estimated global population of

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Table 1: Description of the five study sites surveyed.

Study site Fix 1 Soil type Altitude Human disturbanceSt Pauls Subterranean River

National Park (SPSRNP) N 10 11.978'E 118 54.731'

Limestone 10-240m None

Panaguman, Marofinas N 10 13.376'E 118 57.140'

Shale andsandstone

100-340m Hunting - attendant trails and shelters

Port Barton N 10 24.654'E 118 11.220'

Shale andsandstone

70-300m Some areas selectively logged up to 1989; pig trapping in adjacent forest

Trident, Narra N 09 19.430'E 118 21.757'

Ultrabasic 180-650m Collection of almaciga resin ( Agathisdammara ) - attendant trails; possibly hunting

Dumanguena, Aborlan N 09 26.811'

E 118 25.264'

Ultrabasic 200-580m Localised small-scale logging; P. emphanum

trapping2

1 - fix taken from study site base camp, except for Panaguman site where fix is from start of transect2 - since the 1960s (Caleda 1986)

Methods

Two methods, conducted concurrently within thesame survey period, were used to survey P.emphanum : a point count sampling method(Buckland et al . 1993; Jones et al . 1995) and a

variable-width line transect method (Buckland et al .1993). Point count stations were positioned 200mapart along line transects, surveyed from 06:30-12:00 and repeated once the following day. At eachstation an initial count period of 10 minutes wasused to record all bird species. A further 10 minutes

period was sampled exclusively for P. emphanumto increase expected low encounter rates of thespecies (e.g. McGowan et al . 1989). After each 20minute count period, the 200m to the next stationwas walked at 1km/h with the observer collecting

perpendicular distance data on any flushedindividuals or calling males. The survey methods

followed the normal assumptions of Distancesampling (Buckland et al . 1993).

The location of display scrape aggregates weredetermined from the position of calling malesrecorded along survey transects. DL and MW sweptthe area to try and locate all maintained scrapes and

boundaries of the calling site. Caleda et al. (1987)record that male P. emphanum maintain anaggregate of 1-16 scrapes, although there isinherent difficulty in deciding upon what comprisesa 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 andscrape clusters located. The selection of habitatvariables for measuring, counting or estimating ateach plot largely follow McGowan et al. (1989)and McGowan (1994), who in turn considered theapproach of Dueser and Shugart (1978), althoughonly regarded more general habitat structure

parameters.

At Narra we collected male calling data over twosurvey periods of seven days, in November 1999and February 2000. Calls were recorded from avantage point between 06:30 18:00 onconsecutive days. Calling data collected includedcall bout start and finish times, number of callsduring a bout, and direction and distance of thecalling male from the vantage point. This

established the position of calling centres,identification of individual males, and callingfrequency and its variability.

ResultsEncounter rates

A total of 438 point counts and 78.4 km of transectswere surveyed over the five study sites and yielded22 and 14 P. emphanum encounters respectively(Table 2). The majority of P. emphanumencounters were of calling males (n = 31): sightingswere very infrequent and all

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of females (n = 5). Any inferences on site encounterrates must consider survey period (St Pauls inDecember 1999, Panaguman and Port Barton inJanuary 2000, Trident and Dumanguena inFebruary 2000) and the associated sporadic natureof 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. Noencounters were made in the limestone karst orcoastal forests of SPSRNP, on ridge tops, or within50m 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 transectsSoil type

Surveyeffort(no.)

Manhours

No.encounters

Encounterrate(per hour)

Surveyeffort(km)

Manhours

No.encounters

Encounterrate(per hour)

Limestone ofSPSRNP

132 44.0 3 0.02 23.6 23.6 8 0.34

Shale/sandstone of PortBarton and Panaguman

166 55.3 12 0.22 30.0 30.0 3 0.10

Ultrabasic soils ofTrident 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 associationsInitial analyses using Mann Whitney U testssuggest differences between display scrapemicrohabitat plots and count stations which areassumed not to be scrape sites. Display scrape plotshad significantly higher numbers of large trees ofgirth 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

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