Other contributions to the photo contest 5. Silver pheasant.
The beautiful silver pheasant is native to the national parks surrounding Dokmai Garden in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Unfortunately, its delicious meat and shiny appearance have made it a wanted prey among the locals, which is why it is now considered locally extinct. At Dokmai Garden we try to breed it. At a first step, we aim at establishing a free-living population within the garden, allowing the birds to mix with semi wild domestic chicken of a breed closely resembling jungle fowl. The jungle fowl (wild chicken) can still be seen in the national parks. These two species tend to live together like wildebeest and zebra. When the local illegal hunters turn too old to kill everything within sight, and their children get too busy with jobs in town, then we dare to bring the silver pheasants back to the national park. At the moment, any effort to re-establish birds or orchids, will fail due to the ignorance of the locals.
Eric Danell
Don Rumsey shared his beautiful picture of a male silver pheasant with us.
