New Game Bird Coming to Pennsylvania Woods
April 1, 2008, Harrisburg, PA: Today, Carl Roe, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, announced an exciting joint project with German wildlife officials to introduce elfderdritches, a German forest bird, to state game lands throughout Southern Pennsylvania. Elfderdritches are slightly smaller than wild turkeys, but are hardier and more aggressive, so they require less cover and are more resistant to predators. Males with horns over two inches long are considered world class trophies. Roe indicates that this will present Pennsylvania hunters with an exciting new quarry for future small game seasons.
The German wildlife agency has graciously donated 1,000 breeding pair of elfderdritches to the Commonwealth for seed stock. Heinrich Gansscheisser was instrumental in putting this international agreement together. He is a world reknown wildlife biologist as wells as President of the Deutscher Jagerbund, a German national hunting organization. Over the past six years, Gansscheisser has visited dozens of state game lands from Westmorland to Lancaster counties. He performed a Vogelscheidt Species Introduction Acceptability Inventory and found the area ideal for elfderdritches. The inventory was confirmed by commission biologists to be sure that elfdersdritches present no ill effects on indigenous species. According to Gansscheisser, elfderdritches exist primarily on seeds, insects, snakes and feral cats. Their appetite for stray house cats promotes better survival rates for other small game species such as rabbits and other game birds. Throughout central Europe, restaurants and cooks relish the tender elfderdritch breast meat, which is said to taste like savory pulled pork.
The first shipment of breeding stock is already awaiting release from quarantine at U. S. Customs’ facilities in New York. They should arrive at the Commission’s bird farm later this month just in time for the spring breeding season. Roe is hopeful that the first release to the wild can take place in September and that an initial hunting season for Elfderdritches can be scheduled in the 2010 season.
