Brown eared-pheasant  (Crossoptilon mantchuricum)

Populations appear to be stable or even increasing within protected areas, but declining elsewhere in the face of ongoing habitat loss and hunting (5) (7). The species’ range has been reduced and widely fragmented due to large-scale cutting of trees for agriculture and urban development, and degraded by logging and livestock-grazing (5) (8). As a result, remaining scattered, isolated populations have become more accessible to hunters and highly vulnerable to disturbance caused by grazing (7) (8). Even within protected areas, certain pressures remain. When Wulushan Nature Reserve was established in 1990, a lack of management or staff meant that local communities continued to collected firewood and cut trees illegally, and farmers still use poison bates to hunt common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), which presumably also affects the brown eared-pheasant (7). Egg collection and disturbance by local people collecting fungi are thought to be the cause of high nest failure rates at Pangquangou National Nature Reserve (5) (7).

The brown eared-pheasant is nationally protected in China, and the several nature reserves it occurs in (Luya Shan, Pangquanguo, Tianlong Shan, Wulushan and Xiaowutai Shan) are considered crucial for the protection of the species and its habitat (5) (7). There is even evidence that numbers have increased in Luyashan, Xiaowutai Shan and Pangquangou since the reserves were established. In 1996, the provincial wildlife department in Taiyuan and the headquarters of Pangquanguo National Nature Reserve were requested to stop the mushroom exploitation that was disturbing this species, which they have done (7). Tree-planting and forest management programmes since the 1980s are also likely to have benefited this species in some areas. Additionally, the bird’s biology and conservation are currently being intensively studied in a four-year project (5). There are estimated to be approximately 1,000 brown eared-pheasants in captivity world-wide, including captive populations in Pangquanguo National Nature Reserve, Xiaowutai Shan Nature Reserve, Beijing Zoo, and the Endangered Species Breeding Center and the Institute of Zoology, both also in Beijing (7).