North Dakota pheasant, sharptail and partridge numbers decline from 2020, Game and Fish Department says

BISMARCK – Upland sport hunters in North Dakota final yr shot fewer pheasants, sharptails and Hungarian partridges than they did in 2020, the Recreation and Fish Division stated this week.

The general harvest decline was probably a results of fewer hunters and beneath common copy, upland sport biologist RJ Gross stated.

“We anticipated a slight lower in upland sport harvest for the autumn in 2021 based mostly on small brood sizes and a decline in observations per mile throughout our late summer season roadside counts,” Gross stated. “Though anecdotal studies from hunters indicated 2021 copy was higher than we reported, the juvenile-to-adult ratio from our hunter-submitted wings confirmed that 2021 copy was beneath common for pheasants and sharptail.”

Harvest by species broke down as follows.

• Pheasants: Final yr, 47,020 pheasant hunters shot 259,997 roosters, down 18% and 21%, respectively, from 57,141 hunters and 330,668 roosters in 2020. Counties with the very best proportion of pheasants taken have been Hettinger, Divide, Bowman, Williams and Stark.
• Sharptails: A complete of 15,762 grouse hunters shot 45,732 sharptails, down 21% and 47%, respectively, from 19,971 hunters and 86,965 sharptails in 2020. Counties with the very best proportion of sharptails taken have been Mountrail, Burleigh, Ward, Divide and Kidder.
• Hungarian partridge: Final yr, 14,013 hunters shot 44,822 Hungarian partridges, down 17% and 14%, respectively, from 2020, when 16,795 hunters harvested 52,251 Huns. Counties with the very best proportion of Hungarian partridge taken have been Mountrail, Ward, Stark, Williams and Divide.