Friday, November 20, 2009

FLASHBACK: Wild Burmese Red Junglefowl Chickens Make Fitzgerald, Georgia Their Home!


In the town of Fitzgerald, Georgia, wild chickens run free. Many years back the government released a bunch of wild chickens in an experiment to see if the chickens would reproduce and develop. The chickens disappeared, so everyone thought the chickens were killed and the experiment was a failure. However, the chickens soon returned and now roam free through the city of Fitzgerald, Georgia.

In the 1960s, a U.S. government biologist brought the chickens to the woods outside Fitzgerald. They had an exotic name -- the Burmese red junglefowl -- and the scientist hoped to breed them in the Georgia woods as the perfect quarry for hunters. But the experiment went bad; the birds fared poorly, dying off in the woods, and the plan was scrapped.

But some of those birds, the toughest and sturdiest of all, survived, Gelders said. And their bloodlines surely trace to the current wild chickens that have made Fitzgerald home.

Source: The Washington Post



3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello, my name is Taylor, I saw a program on NATGO on your "Wild Burmese Red Junglefowl". I'm wondering is there any way I may request any hens? I've been looking for this blood line since the 1980's. I looking forward to hearing from you. Have a Happy Thanks Giving. Regards, Taylor

Unknown said...

I'm looking how to become an owner of some of your Fitzgerald junglefowl hens. I'm an old FFA student, and this breed was one of my projects, and I'm trying to re-instate some of this breed into my breeding program. Regards, Taylor

The Moderator said...

That project sounds fun. Unfortunately, I am not the person to contact about any of those chickens. I live in California and merely blog about interesting things like these Fitzgerald chickens. The person who originally posted this video can be located at: http://www.youtube.com/user/rustyGAPN