Harvest Surveys

Big Game Harvest

The big game harvest survey tracks hunter and harvest trends for javelina (Pecari tajacu), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) at the statewide, ecoregion, and management unit level. The survey has been run every year since the 1972-73 hunting season. The analysis methodology had numerous changes made after the 2017-18 season, and the analysis was rerun back through the 2005-06 hunting season. Because of the changes, the estimates are not comparable to seasons before 2005-06.

A survey form was mailed to 75,000 random hunters on 1 February 2024. Additionally, another 50,000 randomly selected hunters for which we had an email address were sent a link to the online version of the survey on 1 February 2024. The mail survey had a link to the online survey printed on it, and respondents could choose to respond by mail or online. Both the mail and online survey were closed on 17 April 2024. 7,642 mail survey recipients responded, of which 1,777 (23.25%) responded online. 1,545 email recipients responded. Only one mailing was sent, and non-respondents were not contacted by other means.

A demographic analysis of all license buyers was performed; the same analysis was done for survey respondents. 14 statistics were estimated for each species at 13 different analysis levels, as well as the 95% confidence intervals for the estimates.

**2023-24 Big Game Harvest Estimates**
Statistic	Javelina	Mule Deer	White-tailed Deer
Hunters	42,726	30,692	757,047
Success Rate	56.65%	49.42%	67.76%
Female Harvest	11,540	1,840	314,972
% Female Harvest	40.92%	15.79%	42.57%
Male Harvest	16,664	9,816	424,892
% Male Harvest	59.08%	84.21%	57.43%
Total Harvest	28,204	11,656	739,864
Harvest per Hunter	0.66	0.38	0.98
Hunter days	233,091	186,096	8,718,659
Days per Hunter	5.46	6.06	11.52
Days per Harvest	8.26	15.97	11.78
Hunters per 1000 acre	0.38	0.27	6.68
Days per 1000 acres	2.06	1.64	76.88
Harvest per 1000 acres	0.25	0.1	6.52

For more information on this survey, to receive the full survey analysis or to receive prior years surveys, email hunt@tpwd.texas.gov. Please note, full survey analysis files are not accessible to people who use an assistive device to access information. If you need assistance reading these files let our Hunt Information folks know and they will assist you.

Light Goose Conservation Season

As part of the requirements for allowing a Light Goose (snow and Ross’s geese) Conservation Order season, TPWD is required to make estimates of the number of hunters participating in the conservation season, the total harvest during that period, and the total days hunted.

A survey form (Appendix 1) was mailed to 8,000 random license buyers on 20 March 2023. The survey was closed on 1 June 2023. Respondents could fill out the paper form and mail it back or go online and fill it out digitally. 1,115 surveys were returned, of which 123 (11.03%) were online responses. The overall response rate was 14.19%.

A demographic analysis of all license buyers was performed; the same analysis was done for survey respondents. Comparisons of the responses to the different survey methodologies were made.

**Light goose conservation season survey results**
Year	Hunters	Success Rate	Days	Harvest	Unretrieved
2010	1,817	0.814	5,660	9,409	--
2011	1,676	0.851	5,645	13,859	--
2012	1,389	0.856	4,162	9,924	--
2013	1,497	0.828	5,533	12,900	1,596
2014	1,600	0.886	4,520	13,436	1,173
2015	2,260	0.888	5,931	17,516	1,580
2016	1,741	0.873	4,391	14,681	1,351
2017	1,101	0.854	3,617	7,849	866
2018	1,792	0.854	4,633	13,573	1,216
2019	1,531	0.732	4,569	8,696	761
2020	1,039	0.785	2,787	6,634	950
2021	1,257	0.790	3,215	8,775	960
2022	1,288	0.800	3,327	7,810	791
2023	1,436	0.891	3,600	12,182	1,106

Public Hunting Area Use

In order to provide more public hunting opportunities, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) provides access to wildlife management areas, state parks and leases land from private individuals. These areas are open to anyone who purchases an Annual Public Hunting Permit or Limited Public Use Permit.

The primary purpose of the survey is to estimate use of each public hunting area as measured by the number of hunter days spent on each area. The survey has been run yearly since the 1987-88 season. The current survey analysis estimates the number of people who use the permits to access the properties, the number of days each property was visited and what activities were done while there. Additional questions dealing with taking youth to the properties are also asked, as a permit is not required for those under the age of 17 who accompany a permitted adult.

63,316 people purchased a permit by 1 February 2024, and 17,500 were chosen to receive a survey. All those who had provided a valid email address (n = 15,261) were sent an invitation on 6 February 2024, and non-respondents were sent a reminder on 26 February 2024 (n = 14,092). Non-respondents were to be mailed a paper form on 12 March 2024, but prior to this date Public Hunting and Technical Programs staff decided to discontinue the mail portion of the survey and instead send an email invitation to all remaining APH and LPU permit buyers who had provided a valid email address. A second email invitation was sent on 11 March 2024. Unfortunately, most of those in the first email were included, which raised the number sent to 39,372. After removing the incorrectly included first email group, non-respondents to the second group (n = 23,303) were sent a reminder on 25 March 2024. The survey was closed on 24 April 2024. Non-respondents were not contacted through other means, and thus non-response bias is unknown and not handled within the survey. There were 4,750 total responses to the survey for a response rate of 12.31%.

Public Hunting Area Use Estimates

**2023-24 Statewide Public Area Use Estimates**
Statewide Usage	Percent of Permit Buyers	Estimated Users
Total Users	67.44%	42,698
Total Days	no data	406,840
Total Days Per User	no data	9.53
Area Days	no data	610,800
Area Days Per User	no data	8.7
Area Visits	no data	474,659
Area Visits Per User	no data	6.78
Youth Days	no data	338,435
Youth Supervisors	23.48%	14,864
Youth Users	no data	96,566

**2023-24 Public Area Activities Use Estimates**
Activity	Percent of Permit Buyers	Estimated Users
Camping	12.56%	2,267
Fishing	10.03%	1,809
Hiking	16.37%	2,954
Photography	8.38%	1,511
Scouting	80.46%	14,518
Wildlife Viewing	26.00%	4,694
Deer Bow Hunting	16.84%	3,000
Deer Gun Hunting	20.69%	3,687
Dove Hunting	33.42%	5,954
Furbearer Hunting	1.41%	252
Hog Hunting	15.81%	2,817
Pheasant Hunting	0.39%	69
Quail Hunting	6.56%	1,168
Rabbit Hunting	5.27%	939
Squirrel Hunting	11.70%	2,084
Waterfowl Hunting	38.00%	6,778

Small Game Harvest

The small game harvest survey tracks hunter and harvest trends for 24 species and/or seasons of upland and migratory game animals. The survey was first run after the 1981-82 hunting season, and has been run every year since the 1986-87 hunting season.

A survey form (Appendix 1) was mailed to 35,000 random hunters on 15 February 2023. The survey was closed on 1 June 2023, at which time 5,287 surveys had been returned. A parallel online survey of 35,000 random hunter for whom we had an email address was sent out on 17 February 2023. A total of 2,952 email surveys were returned.

A demographic analysis of all license buyers was performed; the same analysis was done for survey respondents. 12 statistics were estimated for each species at 17 different analysis levels, as well as the 95% confidence intervals for the estimates.

**2022-23 Statewide Small Game Harvest Estimates**
Species	Number of Hunters	Success Rate	Number of Hunting Days	Number of Days per Hunter	Total Harvest	Kill per Hunter	Kill per Day per Hunter
Dove combined	233,762	80.50%	943,758	4.04	5,315,279	22.74	5.63
Dove Eurasian	233,762	16.10%	943,758	4.04	236,572	1.01	0.25
Dove mourning	233,762	72.50%	943,758	4.04	3,785,429	16.19	4.01
Dove white-tipped	233,762	3.10%	943,758	4.04	62,093	0.27	0.07
Dove white-winged	233,762	38.50%	943,758	4.04	1,231,185	5.27	1.31
Duck	83,446	85.20%	484,101	5.80	1,153,920	13.83	2.38
Gallinule	562	50.00%	281	no data	562	1.00	no data
Goose	21,915	62.80%	85,694	3.91	74,455	3.40	0.87
Pheasant	4,214	46.70%	9,553	2.27	6,743	1.60	0.71
Quail bobwhite	26,130	75.30%	90,189	3.45	192,741	7.38	2.14
Quail combined	28,658	78.40%	102,271	3.57	256,520	8.95	2.51
Quail scaled	8,710	54.80%	27,254	3.13	63,779	7.32	2.34
Rabbit	22,477	75.00%	100,866	4.49	85,975	3.83	0.85
Rail	281	no data	281	281	no data	no data	no data
Snipe	1,686	66.70%	1,405	1.00	3,091	1.83	2.20
Squirrel	42,988	85.60%	361,320	8.41	443,080	10.31	1.23
Teal	27,534	89.80%	69,117	2.51	271,692	9.87	3.93
Turkey combined	65,992	39.60%	917,705	13.91	24,946	0.38	0.10
Turkey fall	65,992	12.70%	543,906	8.24	7,699	0.12	0.05
Turkey fall gobbler	65,992	11.30%	543,906	8.24	5,697	0.09	0.04
Turkey fall hen	65,992	4.00%	543,906	8.24	2,002	0.03	0.01
Turkey spring	65,752	29.20%	373,800	5.69	17,246	0.26	0.16
Turkey spring gobbler	65,752	28.10%	373,800	5.69	16,630	0.25	0.16
Turkey spring hen	65,752	1.10%	373,800	5.69	616	0.01	0.01
Woodcock	843	66.70%	4,214	5.00	4,495	5.33	1.07

Special White-Winged Dove Days

Six Special White-winged Dove Days are allowed in the South Dove Zone prior to the regular dove season. During the six special days, hunting is only allowed during the afternoon, and the daily bag limit for mourning doves is limited. Historically, the special white-winged dove area (SWWDA) was limited to the lower Rio Grande Valley, but it has expanded over time as white-winged dove populations have become more widely distributed. The SWWDA now encompasses the entire South Dove Zone.

The Special White-winged Dove Days Survey has been run every year since the 1986-87 season. The purpose of the survey is to estimate the number of hunters, hunter days, and total harvest of mourning dove, white-winged dove and white-tipped dove in the SWWDA during the four special days. Because surveys are received from hunters that have hunted over the entire state, the survey analysis calculates harvest estimates for the SWWDA and the remainder of the state.

A total of 450,219 people bought licenses that qualified them to hunt doves during the 2023-24 season. Of those, 15,000 were randomly chosen to receive a mail survey. The survey was printed and mailed in September 2023. The 12,359 non-respondents were sent a second mailing in October 2023, and the survey was closed in December 2023. There were 3,410 responses to the survey; 1,050 (30.8%) of these were online responses.

**2023-24 Survey Estimates. Statewide includes those outside the SWWDA and those that did not report where they hunted**
Location	Period	Hunter Days	Hunters	Mourning Dove	White-winged Dove	White-tipped Dove
Statewide	1st Fri	93,724	93,724	450,611	227,817	184
Statewide	1st Sat	100,433	100,433	459,553	204,505	729
Statewide	1st Sun	64,824	64,824	286,733	127,303	729
Statewide	2nd Fri	31,540	31,540	112,472	77,737	0
Statewide	2nd Sat	50,780	50,780	179,009	134,027	61
Statewide	2nd Sun	31,273	31,273	89,531	73,121	607
Statewide TOTALS	not applicable	372,573	169,818	1,577,910	844,509	2,311
SWWDA	1st Fri	19,792	19,792	32,005	130,105	184
SWWDA	1st Sat	26,078	26,078	34,383	139,246	730
SWWDA	1st Sun	15,027	15,027	15,395	85,278	730
SWWDA	2nd Fri	10,984	10,984	12,831	57,324	0
SWWDA	2nd Sat	15,593	15,593	14,720	97,537	61
SWWDA	2nd Sun	9,231	9,231	7,145	47,895	607
SWWDA TOTALS	not applicable	96,705	43,955	116,749	557,385	2,312