Abstract

The present model of wildlife management in relationship to pheasants is based on closed breeding and insertion of grown birds into the hunting grounds. The survival rate of pheasants from farm breeding does not exceed 10%. One can pose a hypothesis about the genetic determination of survivability of pheasants originating from farm breeding. A study of the DNA polymorphism of two groups of pheasants was performed. The first group comprised birds living in a natural habitat in Central-Eastern Poland, where no farm-bred pheasants had been inserted for seven years and where wildlife management was focused on the formation of good habitat conditions, an optimum nutritional base, and low-level shooting of cocks. The second group was of birds bred on a farm and from this farm, pheasants were inserted within the area of Central-Eastern Poland. Their DNA was isolated from their feathers. Amplification of fragments of DNA was with the random amplified polymorphic DNA polymrease chain reactrion (RAPD-PCR) method. Pheasants living in the natural environment were characterised by greater polymorphism. The original source of the pheasants living in the natural habitat is the farm, and the present genetic variation between the two groups of birds can be interpreted as an effect of natural selection.

Key words: Common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), genetic distance, genetic polymorphism, genetic similarities, genetic variation, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA.