Turn Hunting Trips into Conservation Research

Hunters can help the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission with wildlife management by sharing their experiences through the AGFC’s free Deer Hunting Observation Survey, available in the AGFC app on their smartphone.

According to Blake Sasse, Nongame Mammal Program Coordinator for the AGFC, the survey began in 2004 as the “Bowhunters Observation Survey.” It was kept as a hunter’s logbook passed out to a small group of bowhunters and collected at the end of each hunting season. Today, the observation survey is entirely online and takes only a few moments at the end of each outing to complete.

“It’s just as important to record trips when you don’t see anything as it is when you do,” Blake Sasse said. “This gives us a more accurate picture of the amount of time spent in the woods vs. numbers of sightings. If you only participate when you see something, we can’t used that data as accurately to get a good picture of trends in your area.”

To participate, simply open the AGFC app on your phone and click the “Wildlife Surveys” tab. From there, you’ll see a short table of questions to fill out; you’ll record sightings of game species such as deer, bear, quail, turkey and furbearers and also nongame species such as feral hogs while hunting.

“Most of our participants are still deer hunters, and we collect a lot of valuable information on population trends for many species while they’re on their stand,” Sasse said. “Combined with harvest information and other wildlife population surveys, the data collected from these quick phone interactions fill in many gaps in our monitoring programs. This helps the AGFC set hunting and trapping seasons to ensure long-term sustainability of recreational harvest of these species.”

Download the AGFC app at the App Store or Google Play Store to get started.

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