Passport to Texas

Ringneck Pheasant

Pheasant in the Texas Panhandle Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Pheasant is an introduced game species in Texas.

They were introduced up here starting probably in the 1950s. And then we did more introductions in the 60s and 70sto get the population boosted, because they’re such a good species to hunt.

Todd Montandon is a district biologist based in the Panhandle.

They tend to do really well around farmland. That’s one of the reasons they’ve done so well here in the Panhandle—because we’ve got lots of irrigated crops and grain crops.

Yet, the drought of recent years took a toll on the species.

In 2007, we saw 2002 birds on our routes, and in 2013 we saw 15. So, it was quite a decrease; and then last year we were back up to 210. It’s still not near what it could be or what it was, but we’re getting back.

Montandon is optimistic the Panhandle’s pheasant population will continue its upward trend if weather conditions remain favorable. Yet, drought isn’t the only challenge these birds face.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to what we were because of the changing farming practices. There’s just not as much good quality habitat as there used to be.

More on that tomorrow.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.