Species protection:

While once distributed more widely in Greece and Bulgaria the last indigenous population of the Black-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus colchicus), remains in Greece, at the Nestos River Delta. This population has not been genetically impacted by released pheasants and, accordingly, the practice is prohibited in the area (Paralikidis et al., 1997). Declines are thought to have started since the 1960s due to a loss of habitat (GWCT, 2017), until twenty years ago, when the population was estimated at 120 birds (GWTC, 2022) and during the 2003-2012 period, the population was estimated at 100 – 250 birds (Sokos & Birtsas, 2014).

Despite a prohibition of hunting dating from 1923 (Sokos & Birtsas, 2014), saving this population from extinction has been one of the missions of the Hunting Federation of Macedonia & Thrace (KOMATH) since many years. In this context, they established a 6-year partnership in 2016 with the UK-based World Pheasant Association (WPA) and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). The project aimed at increasing and stabilising the population in the Nestos Delta, through increased public awareness, better understanding of predation and habitat management. Thanks to their hard work, it now appears they managed to stabilise the population at around 250 individuals.