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Deer hunting confirmed most numerous in Arkansas Saturday, Apr 5, 2008 By Joe Mosby Eds: With Photo: mosbyphoto.jpg CUTLINE: Arkansas deer hunters are young, old and in between. Three generations of the Williams family of Guy (Falkner County) took buck deer on the same day last fall - left to right, Hunter Williams, Stacy Williams, Terry Williams and Heath Willams. By Joe Mosby No one is surprised when statistics confirm that deer hunters are the most numerous in the Arkansas hunting ranks. It shouldn't surprise anyone, or not many people, that nationwide this is also true. Deer are far and away the most popular game for American hunters. A few of the other findings of an extensive survey by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies may open some eyes. They may also give a hint of how Arkansas ranks high in its percentages of residents who hunt. This is a hunting survey and covers the year 2006. It is done each five years. The finished product is a document called the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. All right, quickly, what ranks second behind deer hunting nationally? Turkey. What? Where is duck hunting? Way down in seventh place, if you can believe it. Remember, this is a national survey, not just Arkansas. The national rankings: Deer hunters: 10.1 million Turkey hunters: 2.6 million Rabbit and hare hunters: 1.9 million Squirrel hunters: 1.8 million Pheasant hunters: 1.7 million Dove hunters: 1.2 million Duck hunters: 1.1 million Quail hunters: 1 million Grouse/prairie chicken hunters: 800,000 Elk hunters: 800,000 Goose hunters: 700,000 Bear hunters: 400,000 Woodcock hunters: 121,000 Coot hunters: 39,800 Snipe hunters: 19,800 Sandhill crane hunters: 10,950 Rail hunters: 8,600 Gallinule hunters: 5,100 Of those 18 categories, 15 are species hunted in Arkansas. You can fudge a little and make it 16 by adding pheasant hunting, which is done on some private preserves in the state but not publicly. The two that we are missing entirely are grouse/prairie chicken and sandhill crane. People hunting "other animals" such as moose, foxes, raccoons and groundhogs totaled 1,128,000. In 2006, the survey found, 12.5 million people 16 and older went hunting within the United States. They hunted 220 million days and took 185 million trips. Their hunting activities cost $22.9 billion. A quick bit of rough math shows us that Arkansas has about 1/100th of the nation's population. This should mean we have just a tad over 100,000 deer hunters, but no, we have way over 300,000, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The same formula would mean we have about 11,000 duck hunters. What? We've got upwards of 60,000 as confirmed by duck stamp sales, and in "good" duck years it runs considerably higher than that. Turkey hunters ? 26,000 by this 1/100th population yard stick - Arkansas has something in a ball park of 75,000 turkey hunters, according to the AGFC. Information from this survey is used in management strategies and planning by federal and state officials and by conservation organizations. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
