Benzon didn’t get into this -- but you whitetail hunters know what will happen if the sex ratio of South Dakota’s pronghorn population gets out of whack: Numbers will keep going up, best-quality habitat to support those higher numbers will decline, and the overall health of the state’s antelope will suffer.

And in case you don’t believe the problem exists: Benzon talked about aerial surveys that revealed a shocking 1:1 buck-to-doe ratio in not just one hunting unit, but a couple. They lie in the northwestern part of the state, home to really big numbers of South Dakota pronghorns.

“Let’s put it this way,” Benzon said. “We don’t get any complaints about success rates from our antelope hunters. We talked about a 28 percent rate for archery hunters, and we see 70 to 80 percent success rates for our firearms hunters on their first tags. We even had one unit last season with a 100 percent success rate on the first tag.”

Why is Benzon issuing this public call for more antelope hunters, especially those willing to fill their second tag with a doe?

“Last season was excellent for us, but we still didn’t sell all of our antlerless permits,” he explained. “And we are coming off another very, very mild winter. We won’t have any impact from winter mortality, and range conditions appear to be good for fawning.”

When pheasants come to mind, hunters all over North America often think of South Dakota first. Arguably, they’d do well to start including this state in discussions of the most promising pronghorn-hunting opportunities. Sure, it’s not Wyoming -- but it’s really good, and the 2008 season looks to be hot again.

NORTH DAKOTA
Like the rest of the Great Plains states, North Dakota offers unlimited archery permits. Firearms tags vary from season to season, and biologist Bruce Stillings expects fewer gun tags to be available, because his state is coming off a record season.

“We had a very good season,” he said, “and we issued more gun licenses than ever before -- a total of 6,069. And even with that high a number, our success rate was roughly 80 percent. We needed to issue that many licenses because we hoped to get numbers down and more in line with our management objectives. For the most part, we succeeded.”

Hence Stillings’ expectation of fewer gun licenses for 2008. Throughout the Great Plains, wildlife biologists make recommendations based on recent harvest numbers and the existing population. Since North Dakota hunters enjoyed such notable success last season, the firearms licenses likely will decrease. But, as always, that’ll be subject to change/ adjustment on an annual basis.

“It appears as though we had 9,000 to 10,000 pronghorns heading into the 2008 fawning season,” Stillings said. “Our gun harvest last season was about 4,400 animals. So it’s reasonable to presume that our total population should be somewhere in the 15,000 range heading into the 2008 hunting season.”

North Dakota’s pronghorns -- like those in the state’s three Great Plains neighbors to the south -- wintered “wonderfully,” to use Stillings’ characterization. A relatively mild, dry winter has meant a lack of moisture, of course, but, he noted when we spoke, plenty of time remained for adequate rain to keep range conditions in decent condition.

Stillings also let it be known that the decision to close pronghorn hunting east of the Missouri River is, apparently, paying off, noting that antelope numbers east of the Missouri are starting to increase, although slowly -- and that’s good news. Returning pronghorns to more of their traditional native range -- presuming that the habitat and forage they need are available -- is a good thing. That seems to be happening east of the Missouri here.

Stillings pointed to the extreme southwest corner of the state as home to the best pronghorn hunting prospects, although hunting opportunities exist throughout the state west of the Missouri River.

In North Dakota, Stillings said, the 2008 season frameworks would be -- as in the other three states in the region -- very similar to 2007. So don’t expect any big changes in that regard.