Winter taking toll on pheasant, wildlife populations

Deep snowpacks, frigid temperatures leading to starvation, mortality

Pheasants forage for food along a road near Parker. Deep snow is forcing the birds to congregate along roads to find food. (Photo courtesy of Tammy Bashore)

As she’s been driving to meetings in eastern South Dakota the past few weeks, State Climatologist Laura Edwards has been seeing a lot of pheasants along the roadsides.

That’s not a good sign.

Deep snowpacks combined with frigid temperatures are making the winter of 2022-23 a tough one on the state’s wildlife.

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