# Spring Grouse Census



## BIRDSHOOTER (Jul 18, 2005)

North Dakota Game and Fish 
Audio News Release -June 14, 2006
Part 1: Upland Stats

North Dakota hunters took fewer sharp-tailed grouse last fall, but the harvest
of Hungarian partridge and sage grouse was a bit better than in 2004.

Hi, this is Doug Leier with your weekly North Dakota Game and Fish Department
Outdoors Report.

The 2005 sharp-tailed grouse harvest was just under 110,000, down about 2 percent
from 2004. The number of hunters, however, was up a bit, as about 24,000 residents
and 9,000 nonresidents took to the fields in search of North Dakota's prairie grouse.

Counties with the highest percentage of sharptails bagged by resident hunters were
Mountrail, Stutsman and Burleigh.

Preliminary reports from the 2006 spring sharp-tailed grouse census indicate an increase
of approximately 13 percent in the number of male grouse recorded compared to last year.
While that's an encouraging sign, more definitive prospects for the fall season won't be
known until late August following completion of summer brood surveys.

Last season's Hungarian partridge harvest was 57,000, or about 10 percent higher that
in the previous year. About 17,000 residents and 6,000 nonresidents hunted partridge,
which was about 12 percent more hunters than in 2004.

Counties with highest percentage of partridge taken by resident hunters were McLean,
Ward and Stutsman.

North Dakota's Hungarian partridge populations have fallen on hard times over the last
13 years, so any evidence of improved hunting success is a good sign.

Sage grouse hunters had much better success in 2005 than they did the previous year.
While the number of hunters decreased from 100 down to 87, the tally of birds bagged
went up to 46 last year, compared to 28 in 2004.

Sage grouse are found only in extreme southwestern North Dakota in Bowman and Slope
counties. They are the state's largest native upland game bird.

Upland game hunting seasons for this fall won't be set until mid-July. You can keep
up with all the details at the Game and Fish Department website at gf.nd.gov.

That's this week's Game and Fish Department Outdoors Report. I'm Doug Leier.


----------

