Did South Dakota stop publishing pheasant population estimates?

The South Dakota Game Fish & Parks Department stopped publishing an estimate of the pheasant population ahead of the hunting season in 2019.

The counts were conducted by state employees who would drive the same routes every year and count the number of pheasants they saw. That data would then be extrapolated to determine a population estimate, which would provide hunters an outlook on how plentify the birds were ahead of the hunting season.

In a 2020 marketing plan, the state GF&P said the estimates were stopped “… to ensure that South Dakota is not unintentionally deterring hunters from coming to our state based on the media headlines reporting of low bird numbers.”

The last pheasant estimate to be conducted by the state was in 2018, when 7.1 million pheasants were reported. The year before that, 4.6 million were reported.

The 2025 season opened for non-residents on Oct. 18.