These and many other fascinating facts came to light recently at a slide show at IIC, during a talk on Conservation Breeding by an internationally know expert, the UK-based John Corder, Vice- President of the World Pheasant Association. Courtesy John Corder the audience was spell bound by the rare footage on the pheasants, as well as by his expert commentary.
“My hobby is to help endangered pheasant species, particularly those in need of support and reintroduction by breeding their numbers up in captivity,” says Corder, who aptly dons a T-shirt emblazoned with the Western Tragopan. For the last five or six years, he says he has worked with the Wildlife Wing of Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and lent his support to the state’s “conservation breeding” project for pheasants. The main focus is on saving the birds in their natural habitats.
Himachal could serve as a blueprint for bird conservation, particularly the Western Tragopan and the Cheer Pheasant. The Department has developed a captive breeding centre in Saharan, amidst luxuriant pine and deodar forests. Here, in 1993, the project won plaudits as it was the first breeding of the Western Tragopan in captivity in the world. In 2005, after the successful mating in April the eggs were set under the ‘broody hen’ as the Tragopan female resisted incubation. Subsequently two chicks were born after 28 days of incubation.
This stupendous achievement was made possible by providing the birds with the habitats they are used to in the wild along with proper diets. “In most cases of captivity, they haven’t even got tails because they are not given the right nutrition,” says Corder.
Corder has shown the way and now it is up to the Indian ornithologist community and bird lovers to save the pheasants and provide them with the environment they are accustomed to.
Kavita Charanji is a free lance writer and journalist, and a member of the Nature Group, IIC.