Idaho Fish and Game in East Idaho was left scrambling recently to find replacement pheasants to be stocked in wildlife management areas during this year’s bird hunting season after a supplier failed to deliver the goods.

To cover some of its bases, pheasants were purchased from another supplier and birds were redistributed from other regions statewide for the rest of the season, which ends the last weekend in November.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused,” said James Brower, Regional Communications Manager. “We at Fish and Game are equally frustrated by this shortage of pheasants that were promised to be delivered for stocking, and we are trying to make the best of this unexpected setback.”

Fish and Game contracted with a supplier to deliver hundreds of birds once or twice a week to four different wildlife management areas in East Idaho and three in the Salmon area, but so far birds have been coming late or not at all. More than 5,100 birds were scheduled over the course of the fall season in East Idaho.

Because of the breakdown in supply, Fish and Game contacted another pheasant supplier to get birds for the first two weeks of November. The last two weeks will be covered by birds shared from other regions around the state, Brower said.

Two weeks ago, other regions shared birds with East Idaho and Salmon regions.

“This is a really unfortunate situation where we really have no place else to turn to get more pheasants for stocking, and we apologize to hunters and ask their patience and understanding in overcoming this,” Brower said. “We deeply regret that this has occurred, and we’re doing our best to fairly distribute the available pheasants throughout the state.”

Fish and Game planned to stock 37,000 pheasants for hunters statewide this year. Unlike state-run fish hatcheries, Fish and Game gets its pheasants from private pheasant producers. The supplier who failed to deliver was from out of state, Brower said.