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Big 3 harvest statistics North Dakota Game and Fish Department harvest statistics show overall success for the 2025 season was 100% for bighorn sheep, 87% for moose and 62% for elk. The department issued eight bighorn sheep licenses, one of which was an auction license. The Three Affiliated Tribes Fish and Wildlife issued two licenses in 2025, one to a tribal member and one to a Game and Fish Department applicant. All 10 hunters were successful. The department issued 292 moose licenses last year. Of that total, 281 hunters harvested 245 animals – 147 bulls and 98 cows/calves. The ...

North Dakota Outdoors: Survival of winter isn’t assured

Early March often creates the impression that winter is nearly over. Day length is increasing, snow begins to settle, and we can see the finish line of our annual winter marathon. However, it’s too early to assume pheasants and deer are going to win the race. Winter lingering on can impact ...

North Dakota Outdoors: Managing coyotes is about understanding them

Every few years the question of whether North Dakota should offer a bounty on coyotes surfaces again. It usually follows a tough fall deer season, a hard, cold, snowy start to winter, or a combination of it all. It’s been asked for years. But from a wildlife management standpoint, a bounty ...

Fund is important way for people to help ND wildlife

Almost 40 years ago, legislators heard from folks who wanted to do a little more for the critters most of us don’t see every day. While game species often get the headlines, it’s the nongame wildlife – the bulk of North Dakota’s fish and wildlife – that quietly fills the prairies, coulees and river bottoms. What came out of that push was the Nongame Wildlife Fund, a simple but important way for people to lend a hand. It allowed conservation-minded citizens to support nongame species, and it gave the Game and Fish Department the footing it needed to build a program focused on ...

Importance of private land for wildlife, hunting In ND

In North Dakota, more than 93% of the landscape is privately owned, making private land essential to the future of wildlife, habitat and public hunting access. Recognizing this reality, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department Private Land Initiative continues with a framework for ...

Every winter, as pickup trucks venture onto frozen lakes and steam rises from the first pour of coffee, the world of ice fishing reminds us why it remains one of North Dakota’s cold-weather joys. Beneath the surface, though, the biology of our fisheries shifts into a slower, more fragile ...