The common or ring-necked pheasant is a long-tailed gamebird in the Phasianidae family, which also includes partridges, grouse, and quails. Males have rich chestnut-brown plumage, a dark green head, and red wattles, while females are much more subdued, with pale brown feathers and black mottling.
Native to Asia and the northern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, the pheasant has been naturalised in Britain for over a thousand years. Since the mid 19th century, it has been extensively reared by gamekeepers for shooting purposes.
Each year, around 50 million pheasants are reared in captivity. However, roughly a quarter of these die before the shooting season even begins, primarily due to predation by foxes. Others succumb to disease, but a significant number are killed on the roads.
The exact number of pheasants that end up as roadkill is difficult to determine. The Road Lab, formerly known as Project Splatter, is a citizen science project that collects roadkill observations to assess the impact of roads on UK wildlife and identify hotspots. It consistently receives more reports about pheasants than any other animal, including badgers, foxes, and hedgehogs.
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust estimates that around 7% of the total pheasant population is killed on the roads, meaning a staggering 3.5 million pheasants meet their fate in this way.
Pheasants have relatively small brains, are mainly terrestrial, and are poor fliers, typically only able to fly short distances. These traits make them vulnerable to vehicle collisions, as they struggle to escape when a car approaches. However, this does not fully explain why they end up on the roads in the first place.
In 2017, researchers from the University of Exeter aimed to uncover why pheasants are particularly susceptible to road deaths and discovered that captive-bred pheasants are 12 times more likely to be killed by vehicles than any other species.
To investigate this further, the scientists examined data from the 1960s, before mass release programmes were widespread and when most pheasants in the UK were wild-bred. At that time, pheasants were far fewer in number and were more likely to be killed on the roads during the early summer breeding season.
Since then, the pattern has changed. Now, the peak period for pheasant roadkill occurs between September and November, when pheasants are released from their pens. Females are released first, dispersing earlier and further from the release pens, which makes them more vulnerable to collisions during this time.
A second peak occurs between February and April, after gamekeepers stop supplementary feeding at fixed sites at the end of the shooting season. At this point, pheasants must search for food on their own. In areas like East Anglia, where arable farming provides easy access to winter cereal crops, fewer pheasants are killed during this period, suggesting that hunger and the need to travel for food are key factors in driving roadkill.
The researchers believe that the reason these peaks were not seen before the 1960s may be because, at that time, most pheasants were wild-born and would have spent their early weeks or months with their parents. This would have led them to foraging sites away from roads and taught them to avoid traffic.
Today, however, most pheasants in the UK are mechanically incubated and reared in large groups of same-age birds, with no adult guidance, for five to eight weeks before being released. This artificial rearing in barren environments results in poorer spatial memory and weaker flight abilities compared to wild-born birds.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the proportion of pheasants killed on the roads, relative to the population, has remained consistent since the 1960s. They suspect that changes in gamekeeper behaviour, such as feeding and efforts to keep birds away from roads, may be helping to limit roadkill.
They also believe pheasant roadkill is more frequently reported than that of other bird species due to the bird’s larger size and the male’s bright plumage, which makes them more noticeable.
Unfortunately, pheasants often show little fear of cars and can behave unpredictably when near them. If you encounter a pheasant on the road, it may not move out of the way but could even turn and run, or worse, fly directly towards you. In such situations, it’s best to avoid making an emergency stop, as this could cause a collision with vehicles behind you.
If you do hit a pheasant, you are not legally required to stop or inform the police, as this only applies to accidents involving dogs, horses, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys, or mules.
Most pheasants die on impact or shortly afterwards from shock, but if the bird is still alive, you can contact the RSPCA, a local wildlife sanctuary, or take it to a vet. However, keep in mind that many vets don’t have the resources to care for wild animals and may opt to euthanise it instead.
If the pheasant is dead, technically, you are not permitted to remove it, as doing so could be considered poaching. However, if a friend just happens to be driving behind you, they could take it home with them instead.
The best course of action is to leave the pheasant at the side of the road, where it will provide a tasty meal for scavengers like badgers or foxes.
