Most people in the Western world think only of the pheasant as a game bird, frequently seen in our countryside. However, with one exception (The Congo Peafowl) all pheasants come from Asia. Even the game pheasant was brought to Europe by the Romans, and now about 40 million birds are bred each year in the UK. Other well-known members of the pheasant family are the peacock and the chicken. All of the world's 24 billion chickens are descended from the red jungle fowl.

WPA supports research in the field to learn more about pheasants in the wild, and to provide evidence for governments to create reserves so that the pheasants can continue to live and breed there. Pheasants can be regarded as "flagship" species; if they can be found in their natural habitat, it is likely that all the other species from that area will also survive there.

WPA also works to manage captive stocks effectively, designing breeding programmes to maintain genetic diversity and supporting international studbooks. It has also become very effective at developing strategies for the successful re-introduction of endangered species to their countries of origin. Sometimes these birds are released into protected areas in the wild. On other occasions, captive bred birds from the UK are returned to countries like India and Vietnam so that birds do not have to be taken from the wild.

At Cricket St. Thomas we support the work of the World Pheasant Association and take part in many international conservation breeding programmes.