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Utah wildlife officials to release more than 10,000 pen-reared pheasants for hunting season

Posted at 4:21 PM, Oct 28, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-28 18:21:44-04

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources posted video of a pheasant release Friday and says they will be releasing more than 10,000 birds on 54 public hunting areas this season.

The Utah DWR says there are more wild pheasants in Utah this year, and they are also releasing more than 10,000 pen-reared pheasants during the hunting season.

The video above shows several pheasants being released, and a map provided by the Utah DWR shows the general areas where pheasants will be released.

According to the Utah DWR, the general pheasant hunt begins November 4 and continues through December 3 on both private and public lands. In years previous, the pheasant hunt on private land only ran for 14 days.

“Biologists were concerned about the pressure the state’s hunters might put on the pheasant population,” said Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Utah DWR, of the heyday of Utah’s pheasant hunt in the 1970s. “Since then, the amount of farm land has decreased, but so has the number of pheasant hunters. Today, about 20,000 people hunt pheasants. Because there are far fewer pheasant hunters than there once was, we’re comfortable allowing a longer season on private land.”

Click here for more information about hunting upland game in Utah.