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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).


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