07/17/2026
These interesting-looking pheasants are called gynandromorphs. They develop this way because they have a damaged o***y that stops producing female hormones, which then triggers male hormones to take over both physically and behaviorally. It’s thought there’s a 1 in 10,000 chance of this happening to a wild pheasant, and this lucky group of hunters managed to shoot over three of them. I got the opportunity to mount two, so I decided to do something special with one and take it to a show. I kept the habitat pretty simple, but sometimes simple really stands out! I also custom-molded the head on that bird so I had an exact match to put back into it. I ended up getting blue ribbons at both the South Dakota and North Dakota taxidermy competitions, as well as winning ‘Best of Category’ with it at the South Dakota show last spring.
