Chemical Elements and the Distribution of Pheasants in Illinois

Relationship of pheasant occurrence to barium in Illinois soils

“…The higher levels of Ba that Anderson and Stewart (1973) found in pheasant tissues of birds from poor range may be related to the significant levels of Fe they found in grit from the poor ranges. This speculation is based on the phenomenon of co-precipitation of Ba with the Fe and Mn oxides that make up concretions (Jenne, 1968).…”

“…This regression confirms that there is not a significant relationship between the 1988 pheasant index (and index data for years not presented here) and total soil Ba. Anderson and Stewart (1973) speculated that Ca might counter deleterious effects of Ba by decreasing intestinal absorption. Calcium data for some of the samples used for Ba analyses were available, and a scatter plot of Ca against Ba is presented in Figure 2.…”

“…Subsequently, Anderson and stewart (1973) reported analyses for 28 elements in blood and 10 different tissues of juvenile and adult hen pheasants sampled over several years, and grit collected from the same good and poor ranges of their earlier study and the study of Jones et al (1968). Among the elements assayed, only Ba was significantly higher in samples of grit (1,840 vs 334 mg kg-1), in femurs (15.8 vs 29.9 mg kg -1 in 1968 and 11.1 vs 24.3 mg kg -1 in 1970) and in livers (0.06 vs 1.00 mg kg -1) of juvenile hens, and in femurs (17.7 vs 27.6 mg kg -t) of adult hens from the poor range.…”

“…Anderson and Stewart (1973) referred to their unpublished work that found that BaCO3 at 300 mg Ba kg -I body weight was lethal over one or two days for female pheasants. Also for the chicken (Gallus , 1980).…”

“…Anderson and Stewart (1973) speculated that barium in the diet might be a factor limiting the pheasant establishment in habitats adjacent to areas of long-term sustaining populations in Illinois. Total Ba was calculated for soils of 74 conterminous counties for which there were pheasant population data.…”