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Vol. 47 No. 2, 2008
Breeding Season Habitat Use by Hume,s Pheasant Syrmaticus
humiae in the Doi Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, Northern Thailand
Apirat
Iamsiri1,* and George A. Gale2
1Joint
Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut,s University of
Technology Thonburi, 91 Pracha Uthit Rd., Tungkru, Bangkok 10140,
Thailand
2Conservation Ecology Program, School of Bioresources
and Technology, King Mongkut,s University of Technology Thonburi, 83
Moo. 8 Thakham, Bangkhuntien, Bangkok 10150, Thailand
Apirat
Iamsiri and George A. Gale (2008) Breeding habitat use by the globally
near-threatened Hume's Pheasant Syrmaticus humiae in northern Thailand
was assessed in the Doi Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, perhaps the best
remaining habitat for the species in the country. We modeled its
microhabitat preferences in evergreen forest using MANOVA, principal
component analysis, and logistic regression. At least 5 groups of
birds were observed in areas from 1365 to 1560 m in elevation.
Hume,s Pheasant tended to use areas containing larger-diameter and
taller pines more frequently than areas with oaks or other evergreen
tree species. Areas with higher levels of herbaceous species
richness below 50 cm were preferred over dense and uniform grassland
which may have been related to their ability to detect predators or to
their diet and/or foraging behaviors. As this habitat is
relatively common above 1000 m and the number of detections was low,
available habitat appears not to be saturated with pheasants. The
reason for the apparent low numbers requires further
investigation. It is also possible that Hume,s Pheasant uses
densely vegetated areas and steep grassy/rocky slopes but remains
undetected; therefore significantly more telemetry data will be
required to adequately assess their fine-scale habitat use.
Key words: Hume's
Pheasant, Thailand, Doi Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, Habitat use.
*Correspondence: Tel: 66-81-3993770. Fax:
66-2-4523452. E-mail:apirat_i@yahoo.com
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