Iowa’s 2024 estimated pheasant harvest was the second highest in nearly two decades, coming in at more than 460,000 roosters last fall, surpassed only by the 2023 harvest of 590,000.
This is the best back to back pheasant harvest years since 2007. Only South Dakota had more pheasants harvested last year.
The 2024 August pheasant survey showed a population decline of 14 percent from 2023, likely due to ill-timed spring flooding across northwestern Iowa.
Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, estimated more than 77,400 hunters pursued pheasants in Iowa last fall, down from 83,600 in 2023.
Iowa’s quail hunters harvested 27,500 birds or 2,700 fewer than last year. Iowa’s rabbit and squirrel harvest both increased over 2023; rabbits by 13 percent to an estimated 77,000, squirrels by 32 percent, to more than 124,300. Iowa mourning dove hunters harvested an estimated 143,000 doves, down from the 195,000 in 2023.
