In the face of angry opposition from pet owners, the Pennsylvania Game Commission Tuesday dropped a proposal that would have banned ownership of nanday conures, a popular South American parrot.

The agency had feared that the parrots, also called blackhooded parakeets, would escape into the wild and set up colonies that would compete with native wildlife.

But a number of people, including a Lancaster veterinarian, said there was no way the parrots could survive a Pennsylvania winter.

In another controversial action, the agency's board of game commissioners gave preliminary approval to shaving five days off the rifle doe season in four areas dominated by state forest land. The vote was 4 to 3.

Under the new plan, which needs a final vote in April to become official, only buck hunting would be allowed Dec. 1 to 5 in Wildlife Management Units 2D, 2G, 3C and 4B — western, northcentral and northeastern sections of the state.

That would leave seven days of joint buck-antlerless deer hunting.

Hunters have clamored for a scaleback of deer killing in these traditional deer-woods areas, saying the herd is being decimated and the hunting tradition is being destroyed there, with all its attendant economic benefits for the regions.

Public and private forest managers, including Dan Devlin, state forester for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, opposed the cutbacks in doe hunting, saying it threatened to undo just-beginning forest recovery.

In other business, the commissioners gave final approval to removing the requirement that spring gobbler hunters wear fluorescent orange while they are moving through the woods.

The requirement has long been unpopular with many hunters, and the agency said statistics show there was "no appreciable reduction" in accidental shooting incidents.

Preliminary approval was given to a boundary change that will move the boundary line between WMUs 5B and 5C, south of Route 372, farther west to the Octoraro Creek that forms the boundary of Chester and Lancaster counties.

That section would now be open to rifle hunting for deer, rather than shotgun only.

And a proposal was tabled that would have brought shotgun-only deer hunting to new areas around and between Reading and Allentown.

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