(Area) Iowa’s pheasant hunting season ends Tuesday, January 10th.
As this season closes, DNR officials are already looking towards next year. Bryan Hayes says winter weather makes a big impact on the population. “We’ve been on a roller coaster as far as weather goes. Just ahead of Christmas we had blizzard conditions in almost the entire state.” Hayes says, “That always gets me thinking about pheasants, because that over winter survival of the pheasants and primarily the hens is a key factor to maintaining our population.”
According to a Department of Natural Resources study, the pheasant survival rate is highly variable. “Over the five year study that was done back in the ’90’s, over winter survival was 64% on average, but it ranged as high as 96% to as low as 23% survival of those hens. When you exceed 100 days of snow cover you’re looking at about 50% survival of hens.”
