Seems that predators do not get as many of the birds as many of us like to think......From Pennlive:
Far fewer of the ring-necked pheasants stocked each fall by the Pennsylvania Game Commission are snagged by predators or killed by motor vehicles than critics generally believe, according a tagging study done by the commission last year.
Of 2,073 banded pheasants recovered in the study, which attached bands to the legs of 5,566 pheasants, only five were documented kills by predators and 14 were killed on roads. Another 43 were found dead, but without a definitive cause of death.
Although more than half of the banded pheasants were never heard from again, hunters connected with the vast majority of the recovered pheasants – 2,011 – which is the commission's aim with its stocking program.
For the study, bands attached to the legs of the stocked pheasants carried identification numbers and a toll-free reporting number for those finding the birds to call. Some carried a $100 reporting reward, designed to increase the reporting rate.
The banded pheasants were released across the entire state, except in the highly urbanized southeastern corner of the state.
The 2,073 recovered pheasants represented about 1 percent of the birds released in 2015 by the commission, which annually stocks more than 200,000 pheasants in advance of the pheasant hunting season.
The general hunting season for pheasants this year opens Saturday, Oct. 22.
According to the commission, harvest rates were higher on state game lands (48.7 percent) and other public properties (50.7 percent) than they were on privately owned Hunter Access properties (37.3 percent), probably because of additional hunting pressure on public lands.
Harvest rates were highest and nearly identical for the first three in-season releases, where the harvest rate averaged 52.9 percent.
More pheasants were harvested on Saturdays (36.1 percent) and Fridays (26.8 percent), with the smallest percent taken on Tuesdays (6.1 percent).
Harvest rates also varied depending on day of week pheasants were stocked.
During the four in-season stockings, harvests were highest for pheasants released Wednesday through Fridays (50 to 53 percent), and 47.1 percent on Tuesdays.
Most of the band recoveries came from the same properties where the pheasants were released. However, one pheasant released in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was recovered in New Jersey, and road-killed pheasants were recovered as much as 10 miles from their stocking locations.
The commission last studied pheasant harvest rates in 1998, when the harvest rate was about 50 percent.
Far fewer of the ring-necked pheasants stocked each fall by the Pennsylvania Game Commission are snagged by predators or killed by motor vehicles than critics generally believe, according a tagging study done by the commission last year.
Of 2,073 banded pheasants recovered in the study, which attached bands to the legs of 5,566 pheasants, only five were documented kills by predators and 14 were killed on roads. Another 43 were found dead, but without a definitive cause of death.
Although more than half of the banded pheasants were never heard from again, hunters connected with the vast majority of the recovered pheasants – 2,011 – which is the commission's aim with its stocking program.
For the study, bands attached to the legs of the stocked pheasants carried identification numbers and a toll-free reporting number for those finding the birds to call. Some carried a $100 reporting reward, designed to increase the reporting rate.
The banded pheasants were released across the entire state, except in the highly urbanized southeastern corner of the state.
The 2,073 recovered pheasants represented about 1 percent of the birds released in 2015 by the commission, which annually stocks more than 200,000 pheasants in advance of the pheasant hunting season.
The general hunting season for pheasants this year opens Saturday, Oct. 22.
According to the commission, harvest rates were higher on state game lands (48.7 percent) and other public properties (50.7 percent) than they were on privately owned Hunter Access properties (37.3 percent), probably because of additional hunting pressure on public lands.
Harvest rates were highest and nearly identical for the first three in-season releases, where the harvest rate averaged 52.9 percent.
More pheasants were harvested on Saturdays (36.1 percent) and Fridays (26.8 percent), with the smallest percent taken on Tuesdays (6.1 percent).
Harvest rates also varied depending on day of week pheasants were stocked.
During the four in-season stockings, harvests were highest for pheasants released Wednesday through Fridays (50 to 53 percent), and 47.1 percent on Tuesdays.
Most of the band recoveries came from the same properties where the pheasants were released. However, one pheasant released in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was recovered in New Jersey, and road-killed pheasants were recovered as much as 10 miles from their stocking locations.
The commission last studied pheasant harvest rates in 1998, when the harvest rate was about 50 percent.
