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Abstract：
Around 60% of pheasants released for shooting in the UK, an estimated 21 million birds, do not end up at their intended fate: being shot. This constitutes wastage, raising economic, environmental and ethical questions. We review what is known of the fates of released pheasants and consider why they do not directly contribute to the numbers harvested. We focus on four main explanations: predation, disease, starvation and dispersal, and highlight other important causes of mortality. For each explanation, we attempt to attribute levels of loss and identify timings or conditions when such losses may be heaviest. We review factors that exacerbate losses and methods available to mitigate them. Opportunities for amelioration may arise at all stages of the rearing and release of pheasants and involve changes to the conditions under which eggs are produced, the way young pheasants are reared or the management of the environment into which they are released. We found few studies investigating impacts of post-release management techniques on pheasant survival outside of the breeding season within a UK context. We found that a number of less commonly deployed practices focusing on early-life, pre-release management may improve survival. Given the scale of pheasant releasing in the UK, even improvements in survival of 1% would mean that ~ 350,000 fewer birds die of natural causes. Complementing current post-release management with proven novel pre-release management interventions could reduce the number of pheasants required for release, whilst maintaining current shooting levels. Lowering release numbers would lower financial costs, benefit the environment and reduce some ethical concerns over the release and shooting of reared pheasants.
摘要：
大约60％的野鸡在英国被释放射击，估计有2100万只鸟，不要以他们预期的命运告终:被枪杀。这构成了浪费，提高经济,环境和伦理问题。我们回顾了已知的释放野鸡的命运，并考虑了为什么它们不直接影响收获的数量。我们集中在四个主要的解释：捕食，疾病,饥饿和扩散，并强调其他重要的死亡原因。对于每个解释，我们试图归因损失水平，并确定此类损失可能最严重的时间或条件。我们回顾了加剧损失的因素和减轻损失的可用方法。在饲养和释放野鸡的所有阶段都可能出现改善的机会，并涉及卵产生条件的变化，幼鸡的饲养方式或放生环境的管理。我们发现很少有研究调查释放后管理技术对英国繁殖季节以外野鸡生存的影响。我们发现，一些不太常用的做法侧重于早期生活，预发布管理可以提高生存率。考虑到野鸡在英国释放的规模，即使存活率提高1%，也意味着死于自然原因的鸟类减少了约35万只。用经过验证的新颖的发布前管理干预措施补充当前的发布后管理，可以减少发布所需的野鸡数量。同时保持当前的射击水平。降低发布数量将降低财务成本，有利于环境，减少释放和射击饲养的野鸡的一些伦理问题。
