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Types of Hunted Game Animals

Man has been hunting and killing animals for as long as he has been able to do so. Since hunting became a sport, and hunting technology became ever-more efficient, countries such as the U.S. have needed to restrict the number and types of game animals being killed in order to prevent irreversible damage to their populations. According to the In Defense of Animals charity, hunters kill more than 200 million animals per year in the U.S. Common targets for game hunting include white-tail deer, squirrels, pheasants, mourning doves and wolves.

Numbers
- Mourning doves are the most widely hunted animal, with 42 million killed per year, according to In Defense of Animals. It also states that 28 million quail, 20 million pheasants and 14 million ducks are killed annually. The World Animal Foundation says that hunters in the U.S. kill about 6 million deer per year, and reports the New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife as saying, "The deer resource has been managed primarily for the purpose of sport hunting." Hunters also kill 30 million squirrels, 25 million rabbits and thousands of other mammals, large and small.
Small Mammals
- According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as of 2006 there were 4.8 million small game hunters in the U.S. Small game animals include rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and foxes. Many states operate limits on the number of small game animals that can be caught during hunting season. For example, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency limits hunters to 10 squirrels, five rabbits and one bobcat per day. The Arizona Game and Fish Department allows people to hunt cottontail rabbits year-round, but they must not kill more than 10 per day.
Birds
- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for regulating migratory bird hunting nationwide. In 2006, it reported that 2.3 million people hunted migratory birds such as doves or waterfowl. Other popular game birds include ducks, wild turkey, quail, pheasant, geese and swans. To hunt migratory waterfowl, people are required to obtain both a state hunting license and a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (commonly known as a duck stamp). They also need to obtain a Harvest Information Program number for each state in which they hunt.
Large mammals
- Large mammals hunted as game include moose, elk, antelope, bears and wolves. According to U.S. News &World Report, it became legal to hunt gray wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho in 2008, after numbers of the animals had sufficiently recovered. According to Born Free U.S.A., most states classify the black bear as a game animal. It can be legally hunted in 27 of them, resulting in about 40,000 to 50,000 bear deaths per year. In Hawaii, all legally hunted animals are non-native species. An example is the feral pig, first introduced by Captain James Cook in 1779. According to the American University website, the damage caused by the pigs has resulted in the Hawaiian government encouraging hunters to kill the animal.

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