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 21 January 2026. 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 27 January 2026. 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 surveys were closed on 21 April 2026. 6,566 mail survey recipients responded, of which 1,471 (22.4%) responded online. 1,402 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 11 different analysis levels, as well as the 95% confidence intervals for the estimates.

**2025-26 Big Game Harvest Estimates**
Statistic	Javelina	Mule Deer	White-tailed Deer
Hunters	30,398	27,980	714,424
Success Rate	55.79%	36.82%	63.36%
Female Harvest	11,163	1,074	369,893
% Female Harvest	43.31%	10.03%	47.28%
Male Harvest	14,614	9,630	412,513
% Male Harvest	56.69%	89.97%	52.72%
Total Harvest	25,777	10,704	782,405
Harvest per Hunter	0.85	0.38	1.10
Hunter days	244,679	172,414	8,195,470
Days per Hunter	8.05	6.16	11.47
Days per Harvest	9.49	16.11	10.47
Hunters per 1000 acre	0.27	0.25	6.30
Days per 1000 acres	2.16	1.52	72.26
Harvest per 1000 acres	0.23	0.09	6.90

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.

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, other public lands, and leases land from private individuals. These areas are open to anyone who purchases an Annual Public Hunting Permit (APH) or Limited Public Use Permit (LPU).

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.

66,157 people purchased a permit by 3 February 2025. After elimination of duplicates and non-valid emails, an invitation to take the survey was sent to 57,865 email addresses on 6 February 2026. Non-respondents were sent a reminder on 24 February 2026 (n = 47,297). The survey was closed on 7 April 2026. Non-respondents were not contacted through other means, and thus non-response bias is unknown and not handled within the survey. There were 4,542 total usable responses to the survey for a response rate of 8.93%.

Public Hunting Area Use Estimates

**2025-26 Statewide Public Area Use Estimates**
Statewide Usage	Percent of Permit Buyers	Estimated Users
Total Users	65.50%	43,334
Total Days	no data	410,116
Total Days Per User	no data	9.46
Area Days	no data	542,979
Area Days Per User	no data	7.34
Area Visits	no data	465,628
Area Visits Per User	no data	6.31
Youth Days	no data	304,473
Youth Supervisors	22.38%	14,806
Youth Users	no data	116,501
Trip Cost	no data	$263

**2025-26 Public Area Activities Use Estimates**
Activity	Percent of Permit Buyers	Estimated Users
Camping	19.01%	12,578
Fishing	11.88%	7,861
Hiking	18.97%	12,548
Photography	10.83%	7,166
Scouting	74.73%	49,436
Wildlife Viewing	38.35%	25,368
Deer Bow Hunting	23.74%	15,706
Deer Gun Hunting	28.25%	18,692
Dove Hunting	33.37%	22,079
Furbearer Hunting	1.25%	827
Hog Hunting	18.82%	12,453
Pheasant Hunting	0.44%	293
Quail Hunting	8.95%	5,920
Rabbit Hunting	5.24%	3,467
Squirrel Hunting	10.72%	7,093
Waterfowl Hunting	28.50%	18,852

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.

35,000 random license buyers were chosen to receive the survey. An email invitation to the survey (Appendix 1) was sent to the 27,726 for which a validly formatted email address existed on 6 March 2026. A reminder was sent to non-respondents on 13 March 2026. A paper form (Appendix 2) was mailed to non-respondents and those without an email address on 1 April 2026. The survey was closed on 1 July 2026, at which time 5,353 surveys had been 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 15 different analysis levels, as well as the 95% confidence intervals for the estimates.

**2025-26 Statewide Small Game Harvest Estimates**
Species	Number of Hunters	Success Rate	Number of Hunting Days	Number of Days per Hunter	Total Harvest	Harvest per Hunter	Harvest per Day per Hunter
Dove combined	323,420	87.20%	1,502,746	4.65	8,500,549	26.28	5.66
Dove Eurasian	323,420	17.30%	1,502,746	4.65	396,714	1.23	0.26
Dove mourning	323,420	78.80%	1,502,746	4.65	6,162,870	19.06	4.1
Dove white-tipped	323,420	3.70%	1,502,746	4.65	83,449	0.26	0.06
Dove white-winged	323,420	41.20%	1,502,746	4.65	1,857,515	5.74	1.24
Duck	61,593	79.90%	273,969	4.45	498,045	8.09	1.82
Gallinule	0	no data	0	no data	0	no data	no data
Goose	13,246	75.00%	52,763	3.98	41,945	3.17	0.8
Pheasant	3,311	40.00%	9,493	2.87	3,753	1.13	0.4
Quail combined	49,893	90.30%	251,230	5.04	786,364	15.76	3.13
Quail bobwhite	43,711	88.90%	203,104	4.65	648,828	14.84	3.20
Quail scaled	16,116	80.80%	96,253	5.97	137,536	8.53	1.43
Rabbit	36,426	80.60%	163,145	4.48	131,355	3.61	0.81
Rail	662	0.00%	442	1	0	0	0
Snipe	1,987	55.60%	2,428	1.22	2,870	1.44	1.18
Squirrel	43,491	86.80%	240,413	5.53	316,577	7.28	1.32
Teal	11,921	66.70%	28,920	2.43	60,710	5.09	2.1
Turkey combined	66,182	44.70%	810,468	12.25	31,821	0.48	0.14
Turkey fall	52,041	22.10%	406,085	7.8	11,010	0.21	0.1
Turkey fall gobbler	52,041	15.60%	406,085	7.8	6,292	0.12	0.06
Turkey fall hen	52,041	9.80%	406,085	7.8	4,719	0.09	0.04
Turkey spring	59,960	35.50%	404,383	6.74	22,021	0.37	0.19
Turkey spring gobbler	59,960	33.30%	404,383	6.74	19,359	0.32	0.17
Turkey spring hen	59,960	3.80%	404,383	6.74	2,420	0.04	0.02
Woodcock	1,104	20.00%	1,104	1	442	0.4	0.4