Chukar

AZGFD runs no pre-season population survey for chukar — only a voluntary post-season hunter-contact/harvest survey exists, which reports retrospective harvest data, not a forecast. Confirmed absence of pre-season forecast infrastructure, any year.

Governed by CDFW's combined Quail (California/Gambel's/Mountain) and Chukar Hunting Outlook press release — a new article/URL each year rather than one page overwritten in place; publish date has moved year to year (Oct 19 2024; Sept 19 2025). Not yet published as of a 2026-08-19 fresh check of the tag-archive pages (wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/tag/california-quail-hunting and .../tag/wild-chukar-hunting-in-california); based on the 2024-25 window, expected within the next several weeks.

Confirmed absence: CPW runs no dedicated survey or forecast infrastructure for chukar in Colorado, any year — checked CPW's chukar species page and the Tier A registry's Colorado entry.

Confirmed absence: no wild population of chukar occurs in Connecticut — exists solely for preserve hunting and dog-training releases, per DEEP's own fact sheet.

Confirmed absence: chukar release in Delaware requires a Gamebird Breeders Permit, consistent with a put-and-take rather than wild-managed population; no survey infrastructure exists.

No standalone chukar survey exists; covered only narratively within IDFG's statewide/regional Upland Game Bird Forecast. Re-confirmed via fresh search 2026-08-19: the 2026 edition had not published (2025 edition published Sept 5, 2025); regional pages still show 2025 content. Expected within the next 2-3 weeks.

Tracked via Montana FWP's combined annual Upland Game Bird Season Outlook (pheasant, sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, gray/Hungarian partridge, chukar, dusky grouse, spruce grouse, ruffed grouse together, by region). The 2025 edition published Aug 20, 2025; a fresh direct fetch of the stable landing page (fwp.mt.gov/hunt/seasons/forecasts) on 2026-08-19 confirms it still shows only the 2025 edition — the 2026 edition appears imminent (one day short of last year's exact publish date). Chukar's own signal within the Outlook comes from voluntary harvested-wing submissions (age/productivity), not a standalone survey.

NGPC's survey instruments (Rural Mail Carrier Survey, bobwhite whistle count) don't track chukar at all - confirmed absence of any outlook/forecast infrastructure for this species, any year, mirroring South Dakota's identical gap (per knowledge-base's 2026 outlook data-collection-plan registry).

NDOW's annual Nevada Chukar Forecast PDF (joint chukar/gray-Hungarian-partridge camera-based water-source monitoring) publishes each September; the 2025-26 edition (dated September 2025) remains the latest found as of this capture, and the guessed 2026 URL (ndow.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-Chukar-Forecast.pdf) 404s. Expected September 2026 per a consistent multi-year publish pattern.

Chukar is regulated jointly with bobwhite quail and Hungarian partridge under one statewide season/bag line; secondary sources (Project Upland, Ultimate Upland) describe all three as having no naturally-occurring NH population, consistent with the put-and-take pattern already documented for CT/DE/ME/NJ elsewhere in this registry. No NHFG program evidence found across two search passes (Tier A pass + this pass).

Lower-confidence call: chukar is widely understood to be a stocked/put-and-take species on Ohio wildlife areas rather than a wild, surveyed population, but no ODNR primary source explicitly confirming this (or naming which wildlife areas are stocked) was located across the Tier A pass or a fresh targeted search this pass. No dedicated population survey or forecast document of any kind was found for the species either way.

Oregon's chukar population is confirmed real and wild (Columbia Basin/eastern Oregon canyon country), not put-and-take, with genuine year-to-year swings described narratively each year in ODFW's Game Bird Hunting Forecast (2025-26 edition: down a bit from the prior year). No standalone quantitative index exists outside that forecast; the 2026-27 edition was not found this pass. Expected ~early October 2026 per the 2025-26 precedent (live by Oct 3, 2025).

SD GFP has no quantitative or qualitative pre-season survey for chukar - confirmed absence of any outlook/forecast infrastructure for this species, any year (per knowledge-base's 2026 outlook data-collection-plan registry).

UDWR's annual Chukar Partridge Update (game-camera water-source production index) is the governing source, typically published in August. The 2025 edition (already reflected in this dataset's own classification note) found below-average statewide production following dry 2024-25 conditions; no 2026 edition found as of 2026-08-19 despite a direct-fetch check of the expected filename pattern.

Confirmed absence: per VFWD's own framing, chukar is 'practically non-existent in the wild except by private stocking' in Vermont. No population survey of any kind exists for what is not an established wild population.

WDFW publishes no discrete, forward-looking pre-season outlook for this species comparable to SD/NE/KS-style flagship documents. The only WA-specific data source found is the retrospective, all-species "Game Status and Trend Report" (535 pages, 2025 edition published Feb 25, 2026), which reports the completed prior season's harvest/status rather than forecasting the upcoming one -- treated as no dedicated forecast program exists, per this plan's established convention for retrospective-only coverage.

This species has no standalone quantitative WGFD survey; it is covered only within WGFD's annual regional "Wyoming Hunt Forecast" narrative (8 regions plus statewide sections, historically mid-to-late August -- 2025 edition Aug. 18, 2025). A fresh WebSearch and direct fetch attempt on 2026-08-19 (one day past the 2025 precedent date) found no 2026 edition published on wgfd.wyo.gov -- a third-party aggregator (Ultimate Upland) already shows 2026 species-level ratings (e.g. chukar POOR; sharp-tailed grouse, pheasant POOR-FAIR, drought-driven) but cites no specific dated WGFD document, so this is treated as corroboration only, not confirmation the WGFD narrative itself has published.