A male ring-necked pheasant. (Photo by Travel South Dakota)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – Hunters bagged more pheasants last fall in South Dakota than they have for 13 years, the state department of Game, Fish and Parks said Thursday.
More than 1.3 million roosters were harvested during the 2024 pheasant hunting season, the department said, with another 380,000 harvested within defined shooting preserves.
“The 2024 South Dakota pheasant season was absolutely spectacular,” South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said in a press release.
South Dakota, the governor said, is “truly the greatest state to pheasant hunt.” The state saw more roosters harvested in two weeks of October 2024 than any other state during their entire season, the release says.
South Dakota’s postseason pheasant harvest figures come from 15,000 random surveys of resident hunters and 13,000 nonresident hunters, the Mitchell Daily Republic reported Tuesday. Questions include the number of days hunted, areas hunted and how many birds were harvested are all part of the survey.
More than a million birds have been harvested in each of the past five years in South Dakota, but Upland Game Biologist Alex Solem of the parks department told the Republic that 2024 stood out.
“Our over-winter survival was absolutely phenomenal,” Solem told the Mitchell publication. “It was certainly evident just driving around this spring, tons of roosters crowing everywhere, lots of hens selecting those roosters for mating purposes.
Pheasant hunting is an economic engine for South Dakota. Pheasants Forever, a private conservation organization, put the financial impact of the 2023 pheasant season on the state’s economy at $281 million.
The release from Game, Fish and Parks on Tuesday did not include a financial impact estimate of the 2024 pheasant season, instead focusing on bird harvest numbers. Hunters averaged approximately nine birds per hunter, said Kevin Robling, secretary for the parks department.
“Habitat and access have been a top priority for the department, and that has played a key role in both abundant bird numbers and ample locations for hunters to target them,” Robling said in the press release.
Landowners and farmers partner through habitat programs to open conservation land, using programs offered by the State of South Dakota, the federal government, and multiple conservation groups.
Pheasants Forever partnered with the state in 2023 to pay landowners additional stipends for enrolling land in conservation programs, with the goal of adding 10,000 acres a year.
In the press release on the 2024 pheasant harvest, Robling pointed specifically to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) on the James River and Big Sioux River valleys, which provides the benefits of the long-standing Conservation Reserve Program, but also ensures access for hunters.
“These CREP lands are directly in the primary pheasant range and provide high quality grassland habitat and access as well,” added Robling.
The 2025 pheasant season in South Dakota will take place Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, 2026.
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