Pennsylvania Game News - October 2018 - 19

T PRIMER
Revenue generated by Pennsylvania's
pheasant-hunting permit is being pumped
back into the Game Commission's pheasant propagation program, and hunters
this season are expected to see noticeable
increases in the number of birds afield -
particularly later in the season - and the
proportion of roosters among them.
In the pheasant permit's inaugural year
in 2017-18, sales topped $1.1 million -
revenue being used this year to increase
the statewide allocation to 220,000 pheasants, a more than 30 percent increase
compared to the 170,000 birds targeted
for release in 2017-18.
About 75 percent of the pheasants
released will be roosters. In 2017-18,
only 52 percent of the pheasants released
were males.
And even though hunters statewide
might find more roosters among the
pheasants they flush, more hunters than
ever will be able to harvest hens in the
coming season. The prohibition on hen
pheasant hunting has been lifted in Wildlife Management Units 2A, 2C, 4C and
5B. Only in WMUs 4E and 5A are hunters
limited to harvesting roosters.
While significantly more pheasants
will be released in 2018-19, the increase
will be most noticeable beginning with
the second in-season stocking, said Bob
Boyd, who heads the Game Commission's
wildlife services division.

FINDING PHEASANTS

To increase awareness of where and when pheasants will be stocked, the Game Commission publishes
an allocations table and interactive stocking locations
map at www.pgc.pa.gov.
Click on "Hunt & Trap" on the upper banner, then
"Hunting," then "Ring-necked Pheasant," then "Pheasant Allocation." A table displays the number of pheasants to be released in each Game Commission region.
Click on a region to see the number of male and
female pheasants to be stocked in each county for each
release, as well as the range of dates for each release,
and a listing of each property to be stocked.
Click on the interactive map of pheasant stocking
locations to see the more than 200 properties that
are planned to be stocked. Click on a dot to see the
property name, the number of releases and total birds
released last year to get an idea of large versus small
release areas. Users can zoom in to see pink highlighted
areas representing areas of best pheasant hunting
habitat where birds are most likely to be found.

The pheasant release preceding the
junior pheasant season, as well as the
release prior to the statewide opener and
the first in-season release, all will contain
similar numbers of birds as last year.
The second, third and fourth in-season
stockings, as well as the winter release,
all will see more pheasants, and hunters
could enjoy some of their best opportunities following those later releases, Boyd
said.
With four more WMUs now home to
either-sex pheasant hunting, and roosters
comprising 75 percent of all pheasants

MORE BIRDS, ROOSTERS & OPPORTUNITY
OCTOBER 2018

http://www.pgc.pa.gov

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2018