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Monk and white-eared pheasants
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In September 2002, we visited the Zhujie monastery only 30 min drive north of Daocheng city, western China. In an attempt to complete our work on White-eared pheasants Crossoptilon crossoptilon and its morphological variation from north to south, we selected this place as our start point in order to examine the differences between the nominate form C. c crossoptilon and the subspecies C. c. lichiangense described by Delacour (1977).
Under the monastery’s conservation, large populations of White-eared Pheasant and Blood Pheasant Ithaginis cruentus have been established during the last three decades. Both of them are tame enough to be observed at short distances. When we arrived at the monastery at 4.40 pm, some monks told us they have seen the birds several minutes earlier. They were kind enough to lead us to find the birds. The sight of 30 White-eared Pheasant concentrated on a small bare ground surprised us. Some monks attracted them by calling and feed them with zanba, a local Tibetan food. The birds were tame enough to be fed by hand. They stayed in the monastery until evening, and then roosted in three big cypresses in the middle of the monastery compound. Next morning, the group gathered in a monastery yard, where they were fairly easily counted. The group comprised 40-42 adults and 13 juveniles. They moved slowly and we could follow and observe them easily. During the days we stayed in the monastery, the group roosted in the monastery on two nights.
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Zhujie Monastery
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The number in a second group of birds was 60. The monastery lies in an oak forest (Quercus apuifolioides) covering about 10 km2, surrounded by alpine meadow and farmland. The two pheasant species utilized it intensively: nearly the whole forest ground had been dug over. Beside some groups with less than five individuals we found four bigger groups of the White-eared Pheasant. Their group sizes were 40-60.
When we called them by imitating the monks, all the pheasants could be attracted. At a sand-bathing place we could observe the monastery group meeting some other individuals forming a group with more than 70 birds. Blood Pheasant joined the White-eared Pheasant in often using the monastery. It offers a location for sand bathing and a good food source. The average group size there was 10-20, but we did once see a group of 40-50 individuals in a grassland patch.
Close observation of White eared pheasants allowed us to ascertain that most have light yellow eyes! We expected to meet a population of the nominate form C. c. crossoptilon and according to shape and wing colour, they were this form. But birds did not show the typical orange eye colour, which surprised us. Originally we came here to fill some gaps in knowledge and now we faced more questions than before. After more intensive observations we found three individuals in the monastery group with orange eyes and one with opal white eyes, which is typical for the subspecies C. c. drouynii.
According to literature, Daocheng is within the distributional zone of C. c. crossoptilon, with C. c. drouynii to be found to the north. One possible, and the simplest, explanation of the lighter yellow eye colour could be the simple mixing of the two subspecies. Another possible explanation could be that this eye colour belongs to the Lichiang subspecies C. c. lichiangense which is not described yet and which occurs to the south.
After Daocheng, we visited Zhongdian, in northwestern Yunnan province. We spend three days in the Bitahai Nature Reserve, in which it is said by the local government to be easy to find White eared pheasant. This nature reserve has been seriously disturbed by the thousands of tourists that visit each year. A wide road, especially for tourists, winds through the original alpine conifer forest, the core area of the nature reserve. The high mountain lake in the middle of the forest is disturbed by motor boat rides for tourists. The forest here is the original habitat of White eared pheasant, but of course the birds there are not as tame as at Zhujie! We recorded a single night roosting area from a long distance away using playback method. It was nearly impossible to observe them clearly at this site so we continued to Lijiang, the typical area of Lijiang subspecies.
Close to Lijiang City, lies Yulong Mountains Nature Reserve, where some specimens of White eared pheasant have been collected. This reserve is also a popular place for tourists who can visit the mountain easily. Its habitat is seriously disturbed: most of the original forests have been cut and the landform is dominated by young secondary forest. For this reason, we selected as a study site, Dapingbai which lies beyond Yulong mountain but still south of the Yangtze river. This site, a half day’s ride by jeep from Lijiang city, is a yak pasture, surrounded by original alpine conifer forest and is, we fear, one of the last places, if not the last, where the possible subspecies C. c. lichiangense survives.
On our arrival, local people confirmed the occurrence both of white-eared pheasant with “bright” eye colouration, and Sclater´s Monal Lophophorus sclateri, for which this would be a new distribution area. We could not stay in the area to confirm this, because of weather conditions and time constraints, but we hope that Han Lianxian (Southwest Forestry University, Kunming) will have chance to conduct a short survey at this site next spring. This might be combined with his survey work on Sclater´s Monal, and WPA Germany has already agreed to sponsor this survey.
The tourist industry is the main source of income for Zhongdian and Lijiang. These two cities have been developed in the last ten years, but at a cost of great change to the surrounding habitats. A stark contrast to these two cities is Daocheng, with well conserved habitats and animals, because it is only at the beginning of its development. Modern culture and lifestyle will come to Daocheng, in addition to the usual touristic structures. Its culture, which keeps the balance between people and the environment, will succumb to this change. It is important to foresee the problems associated with these developments and try to prevent them.
At the Zhunjie monastery, development and associated problems are predicted, because: vehicular access to the monastery from the main road will be easy. The main road, which will combine several touristic spots, will be ready in 2003, which means the monastery will be on the main route, even for non-nature interested tourists. Further construction at the monastery will increase possibilities for hosting tourists. The extra firewood needed to serve the tourists can be extracted only from the area of habitat surrounding the monastery. In talks with the head of the monastery, we realized that there is neither a management plan for the forthcoming tourist development, nor an idea in general how this community of monks will solve these new problems. They range from basic things like litter control to contingencies to deal with unscrupulous photographers. We are convinced that help is urgently needed here, and one author (Wang Nan) plans to use this topic for his PhD study.
AUTHORS
Alexander Pack-Blumenau. An der Bahn 49, 24220 Flintbek, Germany. E-mail: Alexander.Pack-Blumenau@t-online.de
Wang Nan. College of Life Sciences, BNU, Beijing 100875, PR China.
Karl-Heinz Grabowski. Redderkamp 19, 23669 Timmendorfer Strand, Germany.
Article published in Tragopan, Newsletter of the WPA/BirdLife/Species Survival Commission Pheasant Specialist Group, Issue 18, March 2003 (link to website below).
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