Pheasants: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan ... - IUCN

use in broadleaf woodland habitats; to produce
management plans for key protected areas.
Justification: although this pheasant occurs in several
protected areas, there is a need for an assessment of
whether viable populations exist in these places, leading to
protected area extensions or new designations. Ecological
work has concentrated on its marginal conifer plantation
habitats so far, with less emphasis on its original and more
threatened broadleaf and mixed forest habitats. Existing
and future research results need to be translated into
management action in protected areas.
Project description: survey work should be conducted in
protected areas known to contain populations of this
species to assess the likely long-term viability of both the
pheasant populations, and the habitat within and
surrounding each reserve. This will require the development
of a reliable census technique. These data can then be
assembled into a large-scale assessment of the efficacy of
the protected area network for this species. Further studies
of habitat use in evergreen and deciduous broadleaf and
mixed conifer forest are required on a year-round basis.
These might be combined with detailed population
monitoring of some populations to assess spatial trends in
relation to various habitat types used by this species.
Timescale: surveys of any duration will provide useful
information, but a long-term approach should be adopted
for the ecological studies.
Resources: needs will vary depending on the length and scope
of individual projects, but individual surveys and protected
area assessments could be conducted relatively easily.
Project 17. Hume’s pheasant
(Syrmaticus humiae)
Aims: to conduct surveys in eastern Yunnan and northern
Myanmar; to collate status and habitat information from
Thailand; to investigate the utility of secondary and
successional habitats for this species.
Justification: a large segment of the historical range of this
species lies within Myanmar, where there have been few
recent field survey opportunities. Until this area and
eastern Yunnan are surveyed for this species, it is difficult
to judge its threat status with much confidence. It is also
important to carry out research to determine how
dependent this species is on open or sparsely forested
habitat patches, and to establish its tolerance of secondary
habitats (e.g. conifer areas in Thailand).
Project description: surveys should be conducted in
northern Myanmar and eastern Yunnan to establish the
current distribution and, if possible, relative population
densities in different habitat types. Information on its
remnant status in relation to human impacts in
Thailand should be collated, and ecological research
should focus on its use of secondary and successional
habitats.
Timescale: surveys of any length can provide useful
information about some of the lesser-known areas of this
species’ range. Ecological studies will require a long-term
approach.
Resources: individual surveys could be brief, but substantial
funding would be required for the study in Thailand.
Little is known of the
subspecies burmanicus of the
Hume’s pheasant, because
most of its supposed historical
range lies in Myanmar.
© Lynx Edicions
49