Ringed-Neck+Pheasant

__General Information__:
The male has a long, barred tail, a gleaming coloration, white collar, and a bright red face patch. The male ranges from 30 to 36 inches long and usually way around 2.9 pounds. The female Ringed-Neck Pheasant usually have a strongly barred tail, but they have a dull, mottled brown back and buff-colored breast. They female usually ranges from 21 to 25 inches and an average of 2.1 pounds.

__Detailed Description__:
Each spring the male pheasant looks for as many female pheasants to mate with as possible. The male usually has between two and four mates, but in some cases they attract even more than that. The female decides were to put the nest, they usually try to put it somewhere were no other animal will be able to find it. Once the eggs hatch, the baby pheasants usually follow their moms away from the nests. After a little while they learn to feed themselves, even thought they stay with their moms for a few weeks after that.

The Ringed-Neck Pheasant is believed to compete for resources and disrupt the behavior of other galliform birds. Particularity the Greater Prairie-Chicken. The way the compete is by they disrupt of courtship and mating behavior, displacement of birds from traditional breeding grounds, also competition of food, and nest parasitism. Even though they say they are nest parasites there were no reports of them every doing this.



__Habitat and Distribution__:
Their habitat usually consists of open grassland and cropland areas with brushy cover, especially along watercourses. In the winter you usually can find the pheasant in a brushy cover or tall grasses within a quarter mile of an area of grain for food. A good habitat for them usually has grain right around it because it is the main thing that they eat. They also look for their habitat to be covered by brush and trees. This organism has spread all over the Dakota's. They have also have spread all around much of the northern part of the country.

__Impacts__:
The Ringed-Neck Pheasant has a positive effect on the environment that they live in. They usually pray on smaller birds then them, because the seem so intimating to smaller birds since they make themselves making bigger then they really are when the are hunting. Then on the other hand animals benefit a lot from the Ringed-Neck Pheasant because they are prey for a lot of animals including coyotes, owls, and hawks. Then there are other animals that feed on the pheasants eggs like the skunks and raccoons. They do not harm the environment at all that they live in, they almost are just an animal that have been living there for many years, because they have no effect on the environment.



The Ringed-Neck Pheasant does not really affec t humans in any way. For the most party people like the pheasant, only because farmers use them around the farm to keep other animals out that would eat the crops on them. Besides that not to many people eat the pheasant so they are not harmed and do not harm us.

**__History__:**
The Ringed-Necked Pheasant originated from Eurasia, it was first used for game hunting. The way the bird got here was because game hunters brought them here so they have something else to use for game hunting. They were first saw in the upper states around North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. The environmental conditions there were much like the ones they had in Eurasia, is was warm during a certain time of year but then after that it had it colds months were the animal could still be able to hunt in.

**__Control Measures__:**
At this time there are no control measures taken against this animal since it does not harm the place of which it lives in.

**__ References __ : **
>  . dId=IPS>. .
 * 1)  Miller, Claire. "Loud and proud ringnecks." __Ranger Rick__ 32.n10 (Oct 1998): 34(6). __Student Resource Center - Gold__. Gale. Stroudsburg High School. 23 Nov. 2008
 * 1)    Pearce, Michael. "Ringing in a second century." __Sports Illustrated__ 75.n17 (Oct 21, 1991): 24A(3). __Student Resource Center - Gold__. Gale. Stroudsburg High School. 23 Nov. 2008
 * 1) Hagen, Christian A., Brent E. Jamison, Robert J. Robel, and Roger D. Applegate. "Ring-necked Pheasant parasitism of Lesser Prairie-Chicken nests in Kansas. (Short Communications)." __Wilson Bulletin__ 114.4 (Dec 2002): 522(3). __Student Resource Center - Gold__. Gale. Stroudsburg High School. 23 Nov. 2008