Pheasant

Survivor of “Decent with Modification”

 

 

 

 

This Ring-necked Pheasant wakes me up in the morning with his loud crowing cawk followed by an echoing beating of his wings under our bedroom window.

 

 

 

 

Pheasants are classified as birds and they belong to Family Phasianidae. Pheasants are large in size, and resemble chickens. They have stocky bodies, thick, short legs and large toes that are adapted for walking and grazing. As they generally live around grassland, grass woodland edges and farmlands, their “tool-using” short, dull beaks are well adapted for crushing seeds and feeding on a variety of insects and other foods. Pheasants are omnivorous but they eat mostly plant foods, grains, seeds of weeds and grasses, fruits, and insects. They are “survivors” according to Darwin’s idea of “descent with modification”. This random variation within the species of Phasianus colchicus allows them to adapt to the environment such as dense wood and bushes nearby. They also became tolerate of humans. Darwin’s concept of “survival of the fittest” explains pheasant’s ability to survive and produce chicks in suburbia area.

 

 

 

 

Our neighbor’s cat Max was on a prowl over the pheasant. The pheasant was running only in a pace just fast enough to put a healthy distance between them. Does “running” instead of “flying” an evolution through what Lamarck hypothesized “the inheritance of acquired characteristics” or was it simply a “learned” characteristic? What about his decision to poke on my pink color toenail with his hard beak one day? Well, it sent both of us flying… knowing birds derived from theropod dinosaurs, the only thing I saw was a face and an act of a small dinosaur chasing me...

 

Done