Extensive natural range stretches from the Mediterranean to the Yellow Sea, shifting to progressively colder areas eastward.\u00a0 From southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern and southern Greece (including Crete and several Aegean islands), Cyprus, Israel, and the Sinai Peninsula, east through Turkey, the Middle East, Crimea, the Caucasus, most of the major mountain ranges of southwestern and central Asia, south to southern Iran, southern Pakistan, and the central Himalayas, north to the Mongolian Altai, and east across northern China to Liaoning and Shandong.<\/p>

Widely introduced as a gamebird, and well-established across much of western North America from central British Columbia south through the intermontane region of the U.S. south to southern California, northern Arizona, and western Colorado, with isolated populations in central North Dakota and the California Channel Islands of San Nicolas and San Clemente.<\/p>

Introduced populations are also established on the southeastern Hawaiian Islands from Molokai to the Big Island; on New Zealand\u2019s South Island; on Robben Island, South Africa; and across the northern U.A.E. into northwestern Oman.<\/p>

Feral individuals released by hunting organizations may be encountered nearly anywhere in the world.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t