The total scientific identify of the Golden Pheasant is Chrysolophus pictus, with the “Chrysolophus” half which means “with golden crest” whereas “pictus” means painted. That appears like a smart identify, however then once more, Girl Amherst’s Pheasant (the topic of an earlier put up) can be within the genus “Chrysolophus” regardless of not having a golden crest in any respect.
A corporation referred to as the Carolina Avian Analysis and Schooling states that “when you google the highest ten most lovely birds on the planet, it [the Golden Pheasant] all the time makes the record.”
True or not? Having as soon as been burned by unsuitable data on the web, I made a decision to test this for myself. Right here is the results of the primary few web sites {that a} Google search introduced up:
A-Z animals: Not included within the high 10
The Mysterious World: Included and taking the No. 1 spot
The Coolist: Included within the high 10 (no particular order)
World Internet Instances: Included and taking the No. 1 spot
Sprintally: Not included within the high 10 (regardless of some moderately broad “chook species” making into the record, e.g. “kingfisher”)
Chipper Birds: It is a record of the highest 30 however the Golden Pheasant is listed as No. 3, so, sure.
Tajbirds: Included at No. 6.
Bscholarly: It is a record of the highest 12, however the Golden Pheasant lands the highest spot, so sure.
Types at Life: Sure, included. However the record additionally consists of the Mute Swan, which I personally discover fairly ugly …
Allabouttopten: Sure, included – bonus factors for together with the Black-naped Monarch, although a few of these bonus factors are instantly deducted for utilizing the identify “black-naped blue flycatcher”
Webspy: Included, and with a transparent assertion – “it’s the most lovely chook on the planet in 2023.”
Owlcation: Included at quantity 7 however species might not be listed in any specific order.
Legit: Included and taking the quantity 2 spot.
There are lots of extra such web sites, however them it will get boring in a short time. So, right here’s the outcome: Out of 13 web sites, 11 embody the Golden Pheasant of their high 10. And I realized that there are numerous extra ineffective web sites than I ever thought attainable.
For good measure, I additionally requested ChatGPT in regards to the 10 most engaging chook species – it doesn’t embody the pheasant however thoughtfully warns that “the idea of attractiveness can differ from individual to individual” …
Anyway, first-year male Golden Pheasants present a mixture of female and male options and are not often chosen as one of many high ten most lovely birds.
However the seems to be of the grownup male Golden Pheasant make it a gorgeous chook for animal parks, zoos, and comparable locations – for instance, it has its personal webpage at Seaworld and at a spot referred to as Marineland on the Cote D’Azur.
I suppose in China, there’s all the time cash for analysis associated to Big Pandas. One such examine appeared on the consideration the pandas pay to completely different species, utilizing eye-tracking expertise. It seems the pandas are usually not very fascinated about Golden Pheasants regardless of their place among the many high 10 most lovely chook species.
These readers with barely morbid pursuits may wish to hunt down a paper within the Turkish Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences describing the case of heavy blended an infection of Golden Pheasants by Heterakis isolonche and H. gallinarum (supply). Full with coloration footage of the contaminated areas – good for printing out and adorning front room partitions.
Sadly, the HBW states that Golden Pheasants are thought of an costly delicacy in eating places.
When in search of literature on Golden Pheasants, I stumbled throughout a thesis titled “Golden Pheasants and Jap Kings: The German District Administration within the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–1944”. Whereas this was unlikely to result in any bird-related data, I nonetheless wanted to determine what the time period “Golden Pheasant” stands for on this non-avian context.
A footnote within the thesis supplies a solution: “‘Golden Pheasant‘ (Goldfasanen) was a derogatory time period to explain the civil administration [of the areas occupied by the Nazis]. The phrase itself referred to the yellow-brown uniform … It was additionally used to explain long-time Nazis who got vital positions within the Occasion or considered one of its organizations.” (supply: Fritz Hillenbrand, Underground Humour in Nazi Germany: 1933-1945, Routledge: London).
And the primary textual content of the thesis explains: “Total, these ‘Golden Pheasants‘, as they had been referred to by navy personnel, indiscriminately plundered the native inhabitants and displayed a eager style for vodka, girls and public executions. In brief, the civil administration was supposedly composed of ‘blockheads and ass-lickers, ‘drunk on energy.’”
One other use of the chook identify is to explain rich potential donors, which a priest accumulating funds for a hospital thus described as his “Golden Pheasants” -as revealed within the journal (?) “The Hospital” in 1890 (supply).
One British birder describes the decline of the Golden Pheasant in Britain – the place it had been launched within the late nineteenth century – and ends this with the assertion that as a consequence of the presumed extinction, “Golden Pheasant will thus symbolize a real blocker on the British and Western Palearctic lists in years to return”. The unusual considering of listers.
Apparently, in Chinese language tradition, the Golden Pheasant is regarded as the ancestor of the phoenix and represents auspiciousness (supply).
Some researchers offered Golden Pheasants (and two different species, the Chukar Partridge and the Ring-necked Pheasant) with a novel object (a white tennis ball – the researchers had been Australian, so perhaps one left over from the Australian Open).
The Golden Pheasants had been those least prone to method and react to the tennis ball. Inside the species, reactions had been stronger by males, by teams of birds moderately than people, and by captive birds. In science communicate, this then leads to the next conclusion:
“Outcomes from particular person topic assessments had been interpreted as reflecting species-specific method/avoidance behaviors. Group patterns of conduct had been interpreted as reflections of regular responses to novel conditions within the birds’ realm of expertise with conspecifics.” Sounds extra refined, proper?
Jennifer Hill acquired her Ph.D. in biology on the College of Mexico sexual choice in Golden Pheasants. She discovered that the females choose males with full grownup plumage moderately than the one-year males, and males with longer cape feathers. And among the many males, male spur size was the perfect indicator of the standing of a male within the hierarchy.
It sounds form of apparent, however scientific rigor requires to show the plain as effectively. So, analysis discovered that the flight initiation distance of grownup male Golden Pheasants is constantly longer than that of the better-camouflaged grownup females and juveniles of both intercourse. And certainly, it was simpler to get images of the juvenile male than of the grownup male, although I assumed this was as a result of higher stupidity of the juvenile moderately than its much less sensible look.
And at last, if Golden Pheasant dad and mom wish to frighten their chicks, they inform them the true story of a Nice Gray Owl attacking captive pheasants.
