Skip to main content

Why pheasants are important in Georgia





The country of Georgia regards pheasants with a high degree of praise. For example, the official mascot of the 6-day 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival held in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the first time, was called PEAKY, representing peak and youth. The mascot was a pheasant, representing speed and agility, from the Kolkheti region, symbolic of the legend which gave Tbilisi its name. King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia hunted and shot a falcon that had injured a pheasant. Both birds fell from the sky and landed in hot springs. The king built a city near the hot springs in Eastern Georgia (Iberia) and named it Tbilisi, meaning warm place or warm springs.

During the 15 June 2015 floods that destroyed Tbiliisi Zoo and resulted in the deaths of people and animals, the pheasants survived. They are still there.

Some of the pheasants include the Swinhoe’s Pheasant, the Lady Amberst’s Pheasant, and the Reeve’s Pheasant.

The Swinhoe’s Pheasant (Lophura swinhoii) is also known as the Taiwan blue pheasant, endemic to Taiwan. They are a very striking bird. The male Swinhoe's pheasant has a glossy blue-purple chest, stomach and back, with a white nape, white tail feathers, a white crest and bright red wattles (the fleshy parts that hang down from the head or neck). The female is brown marked with yellow arrow-shaped spots and patterns, and has maroon outer feathers. Swinhoe's pheasants have red legs.




The Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) was named after Sarah, a British woman and the wife of William Pitt Amherst, the Governor General of Bengal. He sent the first specimen of the pheasant to London in 1828. The species is native to southwestern China and far northern Myanmar.

The adult male is 100–120 cm (39-47 inches) in length with an 80 cm tail, making the total size bigger than the Swinhoe’s pheasants at 79 cm (31 inches) long. The Lady Amherst’s Pheasant has a white and black cape, with a red crest. Their long tail is grey and their backs have red, blue, dark green, white and yellow feathers. The female is a duller brown colour all over.




The Reeve’s Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) is a large pheasant endemic to China. It is named after the British naturalist John Reeves, who first introduced them to Europe in 1831. Males measure 210 cm (83 inches) long and is brightly coloured with a golden, white, and red feathers, and grey legs. The male has an extremely long silvery white tail, which is mentioned in the 2008 edition of the Guiness World Records for being the longest natural tail feather of any bird species in the world. Females are smaller and lighter with brown and blackish feathers.








MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more