Could genetically engineered pheasants change shooting forever?

Despite significant wins in this area, there remains a major hurdle to overcome, namely that processing small birds such as pheasants and a partridge is a costly process for game dealers to undertake. However, this particular stumbling block could soon be resolved.

Steps in the Right Direction

ITap Group - the parent company of GunsOnPegs and ShootHub - has teamed up with the Game Farmers Association and biotech specialists Wuhan Biosciences to breed larger pheasant strains.

Game processor Phil Litt and his partner Dee Bone, who first approached ITap Group with the idea, explained their thinking.

“It takes roughly as long to pluck and dress a pheasant or a partridge as it does to process a chicken, but the quantity of meat on a game bird is far less. Furthermore, to feed a family of four you need a brace of pheasants. Our hunch is that pheasant would be more attractive to the consumer,” said Dee.

“We were talking about this one day in the office, and I half-remembered reading an interview with an American pheasant breeder who had said something about how given sufficient time he could breed a pheasant the size of a turkey… and the idea was born.”

Simpler Than It Seems

Polly Wanakraka of Wuhan Biosciences picks up the story, and explains the process.

“It turns out that breeding a bigger pheasant is quite straightforward using traditional breeding techniques - in just a few generations we were able to breed a pheasant the size of a Brahma chicken, but then we hit a bit of a wall. We decided to employ gene editing techniques to introduce some genetics from larger galliforms. Initially we spliced Great Argus genetics in and enjoyed some success. The birds had stunning plumage, but still weren’t big enough. At that point we introduced some peafowl genes and were able to meet the target weight of 11kg, the size of a large wild turkey.”

It was at this point that George Davis, Chair of the Game Farmers Association, got involved. Phil and Dee invited him to visit their game farm where they had a small flock of these early attempts. “I was very impressed with the progress that they and Wuhan Biosciences had been able to make in such a short time, but over a cuppa the three of us got talking and thought to ourselves - why stop there? Bigger birds could be the answer to all sorts of shooting’s biggest challenges.”

After much experimentation the team of renegade biohackers at Wuhan were able to splice in genetics from a variety of other bird species, each selected for specific reasons. “We added in ostrich genes, and were even able to source some genes from the now-extinct elephant bird. This resulted in a truly enormous bird, which ran like lightning, but we found that as the birds got larger their wing bones would break under the strain when they tried to take off. To counteract this we also included genes from albatross and sea eagle, which solved the problem.”

Resounding Success

Early signs are that the birds, now larger than an ostrich and which Phill and Dee have dubbed the ‘Suffolk Silverback’, are a huge success. “Each one of our birds produces the equivalent amount of meat to three hundred standard pheasants,” says Phil. “This makes them far easier to process, though we have had to upgrade all our boning knives. I now use a machete.” Owing to their size, the silverbacks, or ‘megapheasant’, (as rearing field staff affectionately call them) are also proving popular with gamekeepers.

What Gamekeepers Think

“We have trialled Silverbacks last season - just a handful in amongst our standard pheasant strain - and we have been thrilled,” said Suffolk gamekeeper Hugh Munguss. “We lost far fewer birds to predation as the megapheasants behaved rather like guard dogs. I saw one kick a fox about twenty yards.” Hugh told us that they have had to make some changes around the shoot. “We’ve had to upgrade our release pens - they’ve got a bit of a Jurrasic Park vibe,” he said, though the cost of that has been offset by a reduction in the feed bill, because the silverback appears to be predatory. “In hindsight, I think they made a bit of a mistake including genetics from the roc [a giant bird of prey from the Middle East, hitherto thought to be mythical] as they’re fairly aggressive. You really see that dinosaur DNA coming through.”

An unexpected side effect of including peafowl DNA is that the white birds also had peacock-like tail feather displays

Hugh is most impressed by their performance on shoot days. “They’re utterly majestic in flight too, and it was a sight to behold one coming over the line - they’re like an A380 in flight - deceptively fast and hard to bring down. They give the guns a bit of a shock when they first break cover, I can tell you. Taking off, they sound like an elephant charging through the cover, too.”

Hugh also said that his picking up team are frantically searching for Irish Wolfhound, Great Dane and St.Bernard puppies, which they reckon will be able to bring down pricked Silverbacks if they work together as a pack. 

What Does This Mean for You

This being said, these new birds do present some interesting challenges for the shooting community. Most obvious, perhaps, is that bigger birds need bigger cartridges. In a statement a representative from one of Britain’s leading cartridge manufacturers told GunsOnPegs that they’re up to the challenge.

“If you think a late January cockbird takes some stopping, the Silverback will make you reevaluate that. We’re developing a complete mega-pheasant range, and we expect to see true Silverback enthusiasts returning to 4-bore shotguns.”

There are also road safety concerns. Traditionally-sized pheasants tend to come off worse when encountering a speeding Amazon delivery van, but these larger birds could leave a dent that’s harder to buff out.

Some game shots are also less than impressed. GunsOnPegs member Col. Tom Thumb said: “This is just another example of woke nonsense creeping into the countryside. A pheasant is meant to be a pheasant, not a damned feathered Lancaster bomber. I was in the war and I’ve been having flashbacks ever since one of these monsters crossed the line on a day last season. That said, it does bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'monster pheasants'.”