Pheasant Management in South Dakota

Pheasants and premier pheasant hunting are synonymous with South Dakota. No other state compares to the success enjoyed by both resident and nonresident pheasant hunters in South Dakota.

So why are things so good in S.D.?

Hunting in S.D. is as good as it gets because three essential elements for abundant pheasants are present: habitat, habitat and habitat.

Seem a bit redundant? Maybe so, but there actually are three primary components of habitat that are essential for abundant pheasants. Those components are:

1. Habitat for breeding.
2. Habitat for avoiding predators.
3. Habitat for winter survival.

Pheasant management is actually quite simple. If you develop secure places for pheasants to reproduce and escape their enemies, you will have strong populations. The more habitat you create, the more pheasants you will have.

One other factor does play into determining how many pheasants will be available for each fall’s hunting season. Weather. For the most part, weather only enhances or diminishes pheasant numbers relative to the amount of pheasant habitat present on the land. In other words, pheasant numbers will fluctuate annually with varying weather conditions, but the long-term levels of pheasant populations will be determined by…you guessed it, habitat.

Aside from habitat, Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) often receives suggestions or questions about other pheasant management options. What follows are some frequently asked questions and responses about pheasants and pheasant management in S.D.

Releasing pen-reared pheasants is a common request from hunters that have had little success in their hunt. It seems simple: Put more birds out there and there will be more to shoot. In the past GFP has sponsored pheasant release programs. More importantly, however, GFP has also conducted objective evaluations of pheasant release programs. All these research projects point to the same conclusion. Pheasants that have been raised in a pen do not know how to utilize habitat to avoid predators and consequently have very low rates of survival in the wild.

Pheasant release programs are not 100% failures. A few pen-reared pheasants probably survived from historical stockings, and some of these may have formed the foundation of our current populations.

However, it is also possible that initial stockings were of wild-trapped birds. Sketchy records are unclear as to the exact source of our original pheasant populations. Regardless of their origin, pheasants now populate a significant portion of S.D. wherever appropriate habitat exists. That habitat, along with annual weather variations, will dictate how many pheasants there are come the fall seasons. All available information indicates that releases of pen-reared pheasants will enhance pheasant populations only a few days to a few weeks after a release.

Raising and releasing pheasants can be an effective means of providing birds to shoot. The key here is that pen-reared pheasants can survive the relatively short period of time from when they are released until the shooters arrive. Fees charged by these businesses offset the cost of raising or purchasing pheasants, and consequently the practice now becomes cost-effective.

GFP could not operate under these same circumstances unless the agency charged a similar amount to the access fees received by these businesses. It is our belief that South Dakota hunters would be unwilling to purchase hunting licenses for the same price that commercial operations charge to access their property. The simple fact of the matter is that we don’t have to operate under this management scenario in South Dakota. In South Dakota, we have habitat and we have pheasants. There may not always be enough for everyone, but overall…it is as good as it gets.

One key to enhancing pheasant populations is not to control predators but control predation. Once again, habitat will do the job.

Good quality habitat will conceal pheasants from predators. If detected, habitat can also afford pheasants the protection to safely escape their enemies. Only when the essential habitats are in place has the actual removal of nest predators been shown to further enhance pheasant reproduction.

But it does come with a price. It takes an intensive effort to impact a relatively small area, and that can be very expensive. GFP does not provide financial incentives for predator removal programs because of this price. In addition, predator removal programs can only be used effectively as a complimentary practice to habitat programs. It is not possible to have a statewide predator removal program without wasting a considerable amount of money removing predators from areas where there is little habitat and consequently, little benefit.

GFP has never evaluated the effects of removing avian predators on pheasant populations because it’s not a management option…and for good reason.

Both state and federal laws protect all birds of prey. GFP, as well as the citizens of SD, believe that the deliberate killing of raptors in the name of pheasant management is a narrow-minded act of selfishness and greed. Yes, avian predators kill and eat pheasants. However, the key to pheasant management is to minimize these losses by maintaining good quality habitat. That same habitat will not only protect pheasants from avian predators but will also serve to enhance populations of many small mammals that raptors actually prefer to prey upon. With the proper habitats in place, lands will produce more than enough pheasants for tremendous fall hunting seasons while still having a few extra birds for an occasional raptor to eat too. It’s a very small price to pay to preserve the natural beauty of the diverse wild assets that so many residents of South Dakota covet.

Pheasants may be viewed as an annual crop of the land, just like corn or wheat. Most of the birds shot in each hunting season were hatched the preceding spring and summer.

In addition, pheasants are unique among game birds because we can readily distinguish males from females and their breeding system is such that we need only a few males around to insure a successful reproductive effort for a number of hens. So we can harvest cock pheasants in the fall with little worry of depleting future populations. Hen to rooster ratios in the winter indicate that we have never come close to a shortage of cock pheasants following hunting seasons. Closing the season would result only in a few more roosters in the spring when we really do not need them. The disadvantage of closing the season is an unnecessary loss of hunting opportunity, even if that opportunity is limited.

GFP management of pheasants is conducted on two levels, both of which are linked to habitat.

The first strategy employed by GFP is to establish habitat on public land and offer incentives to landowners to plant habitat on private land. The first essential element to pheasants is grassy cover. Not just any grass, but dense mixtures of grasses and broad-leaved plants that are left unmowed and ungrazed.

This is where GFP’s second strategy comes in. Pheasants – as well as ducks, songbirds and many other kinds of wildlife in S.D. – benefit from a federal farm program that establishes and protects grassland habitats. GFP actively participates in every opportunity available to shape and modify federal farm programs. A multiple benefits approach to farm policy enables us to utilize an otherwise unavailable source of funding for establishment of wildlife habitat.

Make no mistake about it, S.D. would not be enjoying the plentiful pheasant populations that we have had over that past few years without the wildlife-friendly components of farm bills like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). Not only do these programs provide the essential grassland habitat element, but they also free GFP to spend nearly $500,000 per year establishing habitats on private land that compliment this grass cover. The complimentary habitats that GFP focuses on are woody cover and food plots. These habitats, when combined with undisturbed grasslands, provides a prescription for pheasants that affords tremendous hunting opportunities.