Social Hierarchy of the Brown Eared Pheasants Crossoptilon mantchuricum in Captivity During Winter

A Brown Eared Pheasant Crossoptilon mantchuricum is a rare pheasantsspecies and endemic to China.From November 1998 to February 1999,the social hierarchy and its affected factors on a captive population of Brown Eared Pheasants were studied in Luyashan Nature Reserve of Shanxi Province,China.The dominance hierarchy was ranked with the Batchelder-Bershad-Simpson (BBS) Scaling Method.It was found that the dominance hierarchy of the captive Brown Eared Pheasants was a near-linear.The hierarchy ranks of adults were significantly higher than that of subadults while the males were significantly higher than females .There were statistically significant correlations between the hierarchy scale values and the body weight,wattle size,ear-tuft length.Statistically significant correlations were found between the body weight and body length,wattle size,ear-tuft length.Body weight was the indicator of the fighting ability while the body length,wattle size and ear-tuft length were the exterior signals of the fighting ability.It is suggested that the face might be the center of the fighting display in Brown Eared Pheasants.