Vulnerable Cheer Pheasant Rediscovered After Four Decades In Himalyas

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jun, 2023 ) :After long efforts by the Wildlife Department and World Pheasant Association (WPA), a UK-based organization committed to the conservation of Galliformes, a rare and endangered cheer pheasant has been rediscovered in the Himalayan region of Pakistan and its nesting evidence is found after a gap of around four decades.

During a recently held GIS (Geographical Information System)-based survey at Machiara National Park in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the WPA and Wildlife Department teams filed evidence of 17.3 birds per square kilometer area.

"The survey was held in areas considered as potentially suitable habitat for cheer pheasant in the park and the bird's presence was detected at seven of eight survey locations," informed Muhammad Naeem Awan, Research and Conservation Manager WPA.

Talking to APP, he said that in total 34 birds were recorded calling and two of them were seen by the survey team.

"How many of these were male or female, or in fact pairs, remains unknown because in cheer pheasants, both male and female call with no detectable differences in their calls," Awan added.

"We found five cheer pheasant nests in four survey plots, hence confirming breeding," he claimed.

In common with other parts of its range, the cheer pheasant was also facing anthropogenic pressure like other birds and needed conservation measures, he observed.

This discovery of the pheasant came in the wake of the year-long conservation efforts by WPA and Wildlife Department, Naeem highlighted.

After finding evidence of cheer pheasant in some areas of the park, teams were constituted for call catching of the birds.

Locals of the area were approached to get their experience of watching birds and listening to their call calling, especially in early morning.

Committees were constituted comprising of local people for setting up safe breeding zones where the passage of people was restricted.

In the four months breeding period of the bird starting from April to July, some locals were hired on a monthly stipend for strict vigilance and protection of breeding zones to ensure a safe and uninterrupted environment for brooding birds.

During the survey, 14 Call Catching Stations were set up in the park and observers were deputed to make recordings.

The results of this survey, together with anecdotal local knowledge, indicate that the cheer pheasant is widely distributed in the park, probably because 14.38 km2 (10.6%) of the habitat appear highly suitable for the species, with another 17.75 km2 (13.1%) being suitable.

Naeem warned that unsustainable development was posing a serious conservation challenge for this species, especially in the context of the lack of livelihoods of the local communities in and around Machiara.

The survey team reported that annual human population growth of more than 2.3% among more than 55,000 farmers who traditionally used the park for grazing livestock and extracting forest products before the species is also exerting anthropogenic pressures.

To mitigate the potential impact of these problems, two approaches may help including identifying and declaring a number of safe breeding zones for the species which should be owned by the park management and local communities in a collaborative management approach.

The second was launching a strong conservation awareness and education programme for the local inhabitants to improve their knowledge of the cheer pheasant and its global importance within the park, Naeem suggested.

However, he said, this needs to go hand-in-hand with improving the socio-economic condition of the local communities to make them less reliant on natural resources within the park, especially by focusing on community enterprise development for women.

Awan also informed that WPA in collaboration of KP Wildlife Department was also working on conservation of rare pheasant species, including the critically endangered Western Tragopan in Kaghan Valley of Manshera district.

WPA is arranging training for field staff of the KP Wildlife department on the conservation of endangered bird species.