Cheer pheasant  (Catreus wallichi)

A growing human population, changing patterns of land use and hunting have all placed enormous pressures on the cheer pheasant population and contributed to its decline. The species was widely shot for sport in the early 20th Century, and is still hunted intensively for food and its eggs are collected for local consumption (6). Whilst hunting has probably been the greatest pressure on populations, habitat loss and alteration are also real problems, with grassland and scrubland areas being heavily grazed and converted to agriculture, and timber collection and medicinal plant collection causing further degradation (7). The patchy, dispersed nature of this bird’s specialised habitat is of considerably concern, particularly for the smallest isolated subpopulations, many of which are thought to number fewer than ten individuals. Not only are these small populations vulnerable to the damaging effects of inbreeding, but the fragmented nature of their habitat renders them at risk of higher levels of disturbance, grazing, hunting and wood-felling, and thus of extinction (6). Unfortunately, persecution and habitat loss are proving difficult to control, even in protected areas (7).

The cheer pheasant is legally protected in Nepal and India, and occurs in at least 12 protected areas in Himachal Pradesh, three in Uttar Pradesh and three in Nepal (6). In 1978, the World Pheasant Association (WPA) began donating aviary-laid eggs and young to Pakistan for a captive-breeding scheme in which the individuals were raised in captivity and then released into the wild (7). Sadly, the reintroduction attempts in Pakistan were unsuccessful, with no long-term survivors, and the project has therefore been abandoned (6) (7). Protection of the cheer pheasant’s remaining populations, and conservation of its natural habitat, must therefore remain a priority in the battle to safeguard its continued existence (9).