Saving The Black-Necked Pheasant

Excited to discover a tiny remnant of pure black-necks in the far north of Greece, the WPA speak to Emily Damment about how their new conservation project is breaking down barriers

- Emily Damment

Conservation work is a funny thing. Many of us will be aware that there are groups of dedicated folk working tirelessly behind the scenes to protect, preserve and revive all manner of flora and fauna. But when was the last time we looked up and said, “Hey, you over there with the dishevelled hair and mud up to your armpits, well done for giving up your own time and cleanliness to make life a bit happier for those wading birds”?

One such lot of selfless people belongs to a conservation group called the World Pheasant Association (WPA), whose goal is to conserve galliformes and the habitats they depend on. For those not familiar with the word, galliformes are heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds – those feathered friends that most of us would refer to as game birds. The latest lucky bird to be on the receiving end of the WPA’s attentions is the black-necked pheasant, a close relative to the birds we see today in the UK.

The great-great-grandfather to the pheasants we now shoot for game, they were introduced a long time ago – some say by the Romans, some think the Normans – and were the dominant form in Britain until the 1860-80s. Around this time, breeders and releasers began to work with other species, such as the ring-necked pheasant, which lays more eggs and rears its chicks better than its black-necked cousin.

What is thought to be the last remaining indigenous population of black-necks in Europe resides in the delta of the Greek river Nestos. These little gallies are very important; most of the pheasants we see are bred from hybrid stock and released for shooting, or are descendants of released birds. Their Greek cousins, on the other hand, are wild and genetically pure, but their numbers have declined sharply over the last 50 years due to habitat loss as agriculture nibbled away at the edges of their forest home.