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Pheasant in East Tennessee???
- Thread starter SC Manimal
- Start date
GUNNERX2
Well-Known Member
You close to a shooting preserve?
I had an elderly friend that had a farm next to a shooting preserve and he would ride around on his tractor with a shotgun shooting the escapees...pheasants and chuckars.
I had an elderly friend that had a farm next to a shooting preserve and he would ride around on his tractor with a shotgun shooting the escapees...pheasants and chuckars.
SC Manimal
Well-Known Member
No I'm not. My kids chased it with the 4 wheeler for a little while. Legal to shoot?
There used to be a decent population of them on top of Soddy or Bakewell mountain down south of you where a landowner had turned them out to hunt. A few got away and survived for a while, or so I've been told.
Also, some don't know this but there is a high-fence "hunt" property up north of spring city. I think that he mainly has hogs and exotic sheep and stuff, but there may be something like that around
Also, some don't know this but there is a high-fence "hunt" property up north of spring city. I think that he mainly has hogs and exotic sheep and stuff, but there may be something like that around
GUNNERX2
Well-Known Member
Back in the 60s, the TN Game & Fish (now TWRA) released a bunch of pheasants to try to establish a self sustaining flock but it failed miserably. The last one I encountered was on a peninsula on Old Hickory Lake while I was working on a duck blind in 1973. There were a bunch of theories about why they didn't flourish but what ever it was the whole program was a flop.
I have raised them and when released they will roam and rogue further than you might imagine.
The reason they cannot establish here is mites. The chicks do not tolerate a mite infestation at all and the adults do not practice dusting or any practices to help prevent the infestation so factor in predation, natural expiration and reproduction failure and you have a species that will not sustain.
This is one of the reasons cedar and pine trees are so valuable to birds in the wild in the south.
The reason they cannot establish here is mites. The chicks do not tolerate a mite infestation at all and the adults do not practice dusting or any practices to help prevent the infestation so factor in predation, natural expiration and reproduction failure and you have a species that will not sustain.
This is one of the reasons cedar and pine trees are so valuable to birds in the wild in the south.
