The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : New pheasant species in zoo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

New pheasant species in zoo

Nivedita Ganguly

The Lady Amherst’s pheasant at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: One of the most vibrant coloured pheasants, the glamorous Lady Amherst’s pheasant, is the new member of the pheasant family at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.

The exotic pheasant species that was donated by a wildlife enthusiast was recently added at the zoo. “The species is the first of its kind at the Vizag zoo. With its striking colours and handsome characteristics, it will be a special attraction in the zoo,” Rahul Pandey, zoo curator, told The Hindu.

Along with the Lady Amherst’s pheasant, a golden pheasant has also been added. Both the pheasant species are in good health and being fed with cereal, grains and poultry mixture. With the new additions, the zoo now has seven pheasant species. The golden pheasant at the zoo is quite young. “The adult species have a striking appearance with golden crest and rump and bright red body,” he said.

The Lady Amherst’s pheasant is native to south-western China and Myanmar and also found in Britain, where the population is reported to be on the decline. This pheasant was named after Countess Sarah Amherst, whose husband, William Pitt Amherst, was governor-general of Bengal. The male species is very colourful with an extremely long black and white tail, greenish back, red and yellow rump and black-and-white neck ruff.

Natural habitat

Despite exotic colours of the male, these birds are very difficult to spot in the wild, because their natural habitat is dark, dense foliage. Consequently, little is known of their behaviour in the wild. They feed on the ground on grain, leaves and invertebrates, but roost in trees at night. Whilst they can fly, they prefer to run, but if startled they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive wing sound. The male has a gruff call in the breeding season.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh