This week, South Dakota released its figures for small game hunting licenses. I doubt many people are drawn there by jackrabbits, so even though it's officially a "small game license" it could just as well be considered a "pheasant license."

South Dakota sold more than 180,000 resident and nonresident small game licenses in 2010, and for the eighth year in a row, sold more nonresident licenses (102,003) than resident licenses.

How does the total compare with other states? Here's the state-by-state breakdown:

State

# of Pheasant Hunters

Idaho

Grasslands and a wild pheasant population of more than 8 million birds keep hunters coming back to South Dakota.

20,500

Illinois

22,200

Indiana

11,000

Iowa

74,000

Kansas

108,000

Michigan

56,000

Minnesota

107,000

Missouri

6,800

Montana

27,000

Nebraska

80,000

New York

55,000

North Dakota

107,000

Oregon

6,900

South Dakota

180,000

Texas

18,600

Utah

16,800

Washington

19,500

Wisconsin

60,000

Add it up, and that's nearly 1 million. I don't have info for a few states - California, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wyoming - so conservatively, we could say 1.2 million people actively pheasant hunt annually. Run the numbers, and approximately 15 percent of the nation's pheasant hunters are taking to South Dakota fields in a season.