Gamebird Stockings in Nebraska

The following excerpts are taken from 100 Years of Game and Parks History, a timeline of significant events and accomplishments in the history of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (formerly the Nebraska Game and Fish Commission), 1901-2000:

1931 – The Commission discontinued its three-year wild turkey stocking program along the Missouri River, “owing to the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain wild birds for stocking.” A total of 253 turkey pairs had been stocked.

1937 – The Commission established a game farm near Madison to raise pheasants, chukar partridge and bobwhite quail for stocking. A total of 2,700 birds were raised the first year. Two years later, the Commission established a second, smaller, game farm at Niobrara State Park.

1958 – During the winter of 1958-59, 28 Merriam’s wild turkeys obtained from Wyoming and South Dakota were released in the Cottonwood Creek drainage of Sioux County.

1961 – Rio Grande turkeys were stocked in central and southern Nebraska.

1963 – Chukar partridge were released in the Panhandle.

1970 – The last release of chukar partridge was made. Over six years, 27,456 chukars were released in an attempt to establish it as a game bird. Subsequently, the project was deemed unsuccessful.

In summary, there was limited stocking of Northern Bobwhite and Ring-necked Pheasants beginning in the 1930s, successful stocking of Wild Turkeys of nonnative origin beginning in 1959, and unsuccessful stocking of nonnative Chukar in the 1970s.

Impacts of Introduced Game Birds in Hawaii

In the high-elevation shrublands of Haleakala National Park on Mauai, Cole et al. (1995) found that Ring-necked Pheasants and Chukars “occupy, at least partially, an ecological niche once held by now-extinct or rare birds, and they appear not to be significant competitors with the endangered Nene. The role of these alien birds in facilitating seed dispersal and germination of native plant species is beneficial in restoring degraded ecosystems." The abstract is available here.

Citation: Cole, F. Russell, Lloyd L. Loope, Arthur C. Medeiros, Jane A. Raikes, and Cynthis S. Wood. 1995. Conservation implications of introduced game birds in high-elevation Hawaiian shrubland. Conservation Biology 9: 306-313.