Our plan for the Vietnam pheasant

BESIDES a suitable habitat to release the birds in, we also need suitable birds for the actual reintroduction. There is a big population of Vietnam pheasants (Lophura edwardsi) which is held and bred by World Pheasant Association (WPA) members and zoos, and a large part of this population is actively managed within an international studbook.

The first step of returning the Vietnam pheasant back to the wild is making sure the birds in this studbook are genetically appropriate (genetically diverse and pure). One of the next steps is to build a healthy population of these birds in breeding centres in Vietnam, from which stock will be “harvested” for reintroduction. In the