Pheasants up 42% According to SDGFP Report

August 26, 2015 by Daily Republic

Officials with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department say the pheasant count numbers are up by more than 40 percent compared to last year. Read the whole story here.

The 2015 statewide pheasants per mile index of 3.80 is up from 2.68 last year and more than double the total of 2013, when the count was 1.52 pheasants per mile.

This year’s statewide pheasants per mile index is similar to 2011 when hunters harvested 1.56 million roosters.

GF&P Senior Upland Game Biologist Travis Runia said it will continue to be a long haul to get back to where the state was 10 years ago, but it’s significant progress from just two years ago, when the dwindling pheasant population was entering crisis mode.

“We’re more than double than where we were in 2013,” Runia said. “I think we’re getting back to where hunting is good again.”