ESTIMATING THE RESPONSE OF RING-NECKED PHEASANTS (PHASIANUS COLCHICUS) TO THE CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM.

The study explores the effects of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) on Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) populations by modeling Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) counts on Ring-necked Pheasants during 1987-2005 along 388 routes in nine American states. It analyzes Ring-necked Pheasant counts as overdispersed Poisson counts in a Bayesian hierarchical model estimated with Markov-chain Monte Carlo methods. It also highlights the advantages of using the methodology to assess the association between the CRP and Ring-necked Pheasants.