From the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department

-- South Dakota’s pheasant harvest in 2009 was just short of 1.7 million roosters, according to estimates by the Game, Fish and Parks Department.
 
“We complete a science-based random survey of hunters each year at the end of the hunting seasons,” said Corey Huxoll, GFP harvest surveys coordinator. “Thanks to the overwhelming response these hunters provide us, we are able to get an accurate picture of their success.”
 
A survey of those who hunt upland birds – pheasants, grouse and partridge – indicates that more than 70,000 South Dakota residents and nearly 98,000 nonresidents hunted as least one of those species last year.

Hunters harvested an average of 10 birds.  The 1.7 million birds was the sixth highest in the past 40 years.
 
In addition to the pheasant harvest, hunters took more than 39,000 sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens during the 2009 hunting season, and 8,500 partridge.