Iowa hunters took more pheasants last fall than they have in the last 16 seasons DNR wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz says there was a 62% increase in birds taken.
“Just shy of 600,000roosters. So second highest harvest in the country, probably only South Dakota probably shot more than us,” he says. Bogenschutz estimates more than 83,000 hunters took to the fields — which is up 32% — and is probably due to surveys that showed bird numbers up. “Yeah, definitely. Hunters do look at the forecast that the states put out, like Iowa, and so you know, for down, usually see a little downtick. And if we say things are up, we see a little uptick,” Bogenschutz says.
He says hunting seems to follow cycles. “If you have a couple years down years like we had, it goes down each year, and then it seems like the response to come back when things come up is the same way,” he says. “We almost need a couple years of back-to-back good counts, you know, or better accounts, and then the hunters seem to trickle back in. And so just seems to be kind of a word of mouth amongst hunters, I guess.”
The drought that had spread across Iowa the last couple of years actually benefitted pheasant numbers. “Pheasants tend to do well when we have those drier and warmer springs. And, you know, obviously we need good winters in there too to go along with the dry springs, and we kind of kind of had that. So, yeah, our pheasant numbers have been recovering. You know, the weather’s been more moderate,” Bogenschutz says.
Bogenschutz says the 2024 roadside survey concluded on August 15th and the results are expected to show a pheasant population slightly lower in some areas due to spring flooding.
