WHEN YOU
LOOK
Western Bluebird
A Symbol of Immortality is Dying
The Historic and Cultural Implications of the Ring-Necked Pheasant in the Climate Crisis
The Ring-Necked Pheasant in the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History
When you look at this ring-necked pheasant, you see an immigrant turned migrant.
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This bird of many colors is today found in the grasslands of North America after being brought from Eastern Asia in the early 1800s. Climate change has implicated this resilient creature by changing its habitat in unsuitable ways for the species, causing a decline in their population, which damages the mythos surrounding it.
The ring-necked pheasant lives in grasslands year-round and does not migrate for the winter. They use the grass around them to stay warm. The increasing summer heat due to climate change is not allowing for as many grasses to grow. This makes the birds more exposed to the elements in the winter, decreasing their chance of survival. Furthermore, the increasingly intense winters are covering the ground in snow for longer. The nesting season for this fowl in the spring cannot take place as well in this cold climate. Less chicks are surviving into adulthood because of this. Ultimately climate change is impacting the pheasant’s habitat in many ways, leading to a decline in the species.
Ring-Necked Pheasant in Flight
Phasianus colchicus, Ring-Necked Pheasant
This traditional symbol of immortality is dying. As their natural home is in India and China, the Buddhists were exposed to this species initially. Through observing their peculiar habit, they began to see the ring-necked pheasant as a bird that signifies a great resilience and immortality. The implications of this bird are intrinsically linked to their almost unnatural ability to survive, yet climate change threatens the credibility behind this mythos, weakening its meaning to these cultures.
The bird must migrate out of its newfound home to find milder temperatures, thus turning this immigrant into a restless migrant moving throughout the plains and the western United States, attempting to find a place to call home before a chilling death is at their “immortal” doorstep.