White-tailed ptarmigan

Governed by ADF&G Small Game Program's annual "Alaska Small Game Summary" (covers all 7 native grouse/ptarmigan species — ruffed, sharp-tailed, sooty, spruce grouse; rock, white-tailed, willow ptarmigan — in one hybrid document combining spring breeding-survey and summer brood-survey results with harvest expectations). Confirmed not yet published for 2026 as of a 2026-08-19 fresh check (the year-specific URL pattern small_game_status_2026_summary_report.pdf still returns 404, matching the Tier A registry's 2026-08-18 capture). No fixed calendar publish date exists, but both the 2024 and 2025 editions went live only after the early-August brood-survey fieldwork window closed, so publication is expected sometime in the coming weeks.

No dedicated annual population-survey, lek/route-count, or pre-season outlook program was found for white-tailed ptarmigan in California after a real search attempt on 2026-08-19 (two separate queries), matching the Tier A registry's own prior inconclusive check. What exists instead is incidental: historical academic range/habitat-use research from the original 1971-72 Colorado-source translocation, a CDFW-funded range-expansion research grant, and byproduct camera-trap detections from an unrelated 2021-2022 Alpine Mesocarnivore Study. The species does carry an active, unusually tight regulated season (2 per day AND 2 per season total) that implies CDFW holds some internal basis for that quota, but nothing publicly published surfaced in either this pass or the registry's prior one — closed here as no_program on balance, but with lower confidence than a fully confirmed absence; worth a future re-check rather than treating as settled.

CPW/CSU/USGS jointly run a real, multi-decade white-tailed ptarmigan monitoring program (statewide survey since 2011, most recent full survey cycle 2024; population characterized as stable per CPW biologist Amy Seglund), but this is episodic multi-year research rather than a fixed-annual, hunter-facing outlook — no discrete standalone 2026 report was found this pass (re-checked 2026-08-19). No confirmed fixed publish window exists; limited-permit hunting continues.

Utah's Uinta Mountains population (non-native, introduced 1976) has been surveyed exactly once, via a 2017 callback/pointing-dog study (~3,325-bird statewide estimate); no evidence of a repeat survey since, confirmed via a fresh 2026-08-19 search. No recurring program exists to report a 2026 status against.