North Dakota
Tough winter hammers North Dakota pronghorn numbers, available tags
North Dakota Game and Fish Department big game biologists recently completed the annual aerial survey for pronghorns.
Pronghorn numbers are down 40% from last year
after one of the worst winters in recent memory, with the biggest losses north of the Missouri River, where populations declined 60%. The northern Badlands north of Medora, North Dakota, saw a 53% decline, numbers south of Medora were down 31% and the Bowman area in the extreme southwest North Dakota was down 15%.
“The winter of 2022-23 is going to go down as being one of those historic winters,” said Bruce Stillings, the Game and Fish Department’s big game management supervisor in Dickinson. “Anybody that’s been following pronghorn populations over time knows that when we get those extreme winters, it’s not good for deer and especially not good for pronghorn and that’s exactly what we saw this past summer doing our surveys.”
Mike Anderson gives us all the details in this week’s segment of “North Dakota Outdoors.”