Patterns of success in game bird introductions in the United States
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Zoology
- Keywords
- Introduced species, Game Birds, Phesianidae, Propagule pressure
- Copyright
- © 2016 Moulton et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Patterns of success in game bird introductions in the United States. PeerJ PrePrints 4:e1765v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1765v1
Abstract
Better predictions of the success of species’ introductions require careful evaluation of the relative importance of at least three kinds of factors: species characteristics, characteristics of the site of introduction, and event-level factors such as propagule pressure. Historical records of bird introductions provide a unique method for addressing the relative importance of these factors. We compiled a list of introductions of 17 Phasianid species released in the USA during the Foreign Game Investigation Program (FGIP). These records indicate that releases for some Phasianid species in the USA continued long after establishment. For many of the 13 species that always failed, even numerous releases and large numbers of individuals per release were not enough for successful establishment, yet several of these species were successfully introduced elsewhere. Only four species were successful in at least one state. Yet, all four were unsuccessful either in other states, or in other regions of states where they were not already successfully established, or both. These results support the notion that the number of individuals released and the number of releases are less important than characteristics of the location where the introductions occurred.
Author Comment
We evaluate potential factors influencing successful introductions of game birds (Phasianidae) in the United States. Location and species identity are more important than numbers introduced.
Supplemental Information
Game bird introduction records
Table s1. Number of releases Table s2. A list of the number of species, individuals, and releases Table s3. List by state of total releases Table s4. Breakdown of common pheasant introductions by state Table s5. Breakdown of chukar introductions by state Table s6. Breakdown of Perdix perdix introductions by state Appendix S1. List of all releases Appendix S2. Releases included in analyses References for supplemental material