Kansas Hunting
Kansas had diversified and abundant wildlife in the mid 19th century. Kansas is known for their vast grassland and exceptional pheasant hunting. It includes numerous large game animals. There are some big hunting opportunities of whitetail deer, elk, pronghorn and antelope. Spanish explorers brought wild horses to America. Huge herds of American bison known as buffalo, wander in plains. In the east of woodlands there were black bears, gray wolves, smaller mammals and cougars.
Indiscriminate hunting and natural environment had resulted extinct of all the large mammals except for deer by the end of the 19th century. Presently small herds of buffalo and elk are conserved in private ranches and wildlife management area. It also includes badger, coyote, black tailed prairie dog, weasel, red fox, raccoon, cottontail, striped skunk, fox squirrel, woodchuck, jackrabbit, and opossum.
In Kansas many species of birds are found. Some of them are residents. There are many other species of birds, which migrate into Kansas during favorable seasons. The native birds are naming cardinal, blue jay, robin, and several species of woodpecker, Carolina wren western meadowlark, and eastern meadowlark. Western meadowlark and eastern meadowlark birds is the official state bird.
Safari was a very famous type of expedition. It was led by one or more professional hunters. Later the bearers used for the safaris were replaced by automobiles and still later by aircrafts. These made the hunting ground more accessible. These caused an alarmingly decrease in wild life of Kansas. It decreased to such an amount that some most hunted species became extinct.
It is illegal in Kansas to hunt, shoot, fish or trap animals on private land without the permission of its owner. If you are hunting from public roads or rail roads that is, rail tracks you need to have prior permission of the owners of the land on the both the sides of the road or rail roads. In addition you should also have a permission from the railroad authority to move on the railroad if you are hunting from the railroad. Moreover, you also require additional permission to a private land if it has a hoarding depicting "by Written Permission Only". Or it has trees or fence post painted in purple color.
According to recent news Kansas firearms deer seasons began on Nov. 30, 2005. It all ran all through up to Dec 11, 2005. Hunters and Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) staff had reported a good strength for the firearms deer seasons. It has also said that the cold weather and snow has much affected the deer hunting. For these sports to continue several changes on laws and regulations are very important.
According to the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWFT), the Turkey hunters who are visiting Kansas for turkey hunting during the year 2006 spring turkey season will have new hunting areas. For this purpose National Wild Turkey Federation, has donated funds to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to increase the public spring turkey hunting area to 130,000 acres.