The chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar, Aves, Galliformes) is a polytypic species, with 17 described subspecies globally. Chukar partridge has a very wide distribution, ranging from east Balkans and the adjacent Mediterranean islands to central Asia and up into northeastern China. There are seven described subspecies in China: A. c. pubescens, A. c. potanini, A. c. ordoscensis, A. c. pallida, A. c. falki, A. c. dzungarica and A. c. pallescens. Of the seven subspecies, A. c. pubescens and A. c. pallida are endemic to China. The region which chukar partridges inhabit includes two distinct climatic types, the arid and semi-arid climate region in the west and temperate monsoon region in the east in China. Chukar partridge is a very important hunting bird in northern China. Currently, populations of chukar partridges in this desert area are threatened by hunting pressure and human persecution on the desert area of northern China. Previous studies have focused on the following aspects, such as phylogeography, introgression and genetic structure. These studies sought to address the scarcity of demographic information on chukars, in particular the subspecies endemic to China, A. c. pubescens and A. c. pallida. The present study employed a direct sequencing method to investigate the past demographic changes in 112 A. c. pubescens specimens sampled from 12 populations. A total of 1154-bp sequences of mitochondrial DNA control region data were sequenced, and 28 polymorphic sites defined 29 haplotypes. The most common haplotype, H1, was shared by 50 samples from 12 populations and the second most common haplotype, H4, was shared by 16 samples which came from eight populations. The gene flow estimate revealed that high gene flow occurs among the 12 populations. No evidence of isolation by geographic distance among the populations was observed. The combination of low nucleotide and high haplotype diversity, and the shape of the mismatch distributions both suggest that A. c. pubescens has undergone a recent population expansion. The recent expansion hypothesis is also supported by the common haplotypes (H1 and H4) shared between geographically distinct regions and by the non-significant mismatch distribution analysis indicating a demographic population expansion. Neutrality tests also suggested that A. c. pubescens has undergone a population expansion. The combination of a negative Tajima's D (D=-1.336, P < 0.05), Fu's Fs (Fs=-1.720, P < 0.05), and a unimodal of mismatch distributions of A. c. pubescens are consistent with past population expansion. Our results revealed that most A. c. pubescens populations experienced population expansion during 0.027-0.06 Ma. Based on the expansion time, we speculate that the expansion of the chukar, occurring in the metaphase of the late Pleistocene (the fifth cold period), may have resulted from two reasons: 1) there were no large-scale glacier effect in north China during Pleistocene, 2) the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau resulted in the aggravation of the drought and desertification, both of which are suitable for population expansion of chukar partridge. The chukar partridge inhabits Palearctic regions; however, the WD population, located in the Oriental realm, may have been a founder population in this region. Therefore, this particular population should be treated as a stand-alone management unit and further investigations into its ecology should be carried out.